We have today seen the vile Russel Brand, our very own British narcissist, jailed for 10 years and 6 months for a series of sexual offences which demonstrated a horrific, misogynistic sense of entitlement.

The judge spelled out the details in arriving at a sentence somewhat higher than most had predicted. It may be reduced on appeal but not, I would guess, by very much.

The accusers had a terrible time in court being accused of lying because they hadn’t screamed or complained to the police earlier – accusations taken directly from the rape myth play-book by the barrister representing him. The government has said that they will look again at the procedures in order somehow to reduce the burden on complainants: I’m not convinced that this will achieve very much.

Having to recount a forced sexual encounter in detail is not something any of us would like to do. Sexual activity is a private thing: we do not normally discuss it with others or give graphic details – at least not in my circle of friends – and so having to do so, firstly to the police and then in a Court, before a judge, jury and members of the public, is hardly an inducement to make any sort of complaint. The more so where the accused is famous and can use his position to belittle you.

There are though other narcissists still at large. For years we have looked despairingly at the seeming success of Donald J Trump. He convinced a huge group of electors to vote for him and his horrific policies by introducing us to the concept of fake news and ‘alternative facts’. Not of course that he was alone in manipulating the concept of facts – many in the woke brigade told us that we could each have our truth - and that such a truth was ‘valid’ and not to be gainsaid by someone with a different ‘reality’. They could simply co-exist as if there was no conflict.

But the Trump took it to a higher level telling us that anyone who denied his facts, his truth, his account of what had happened, was a person of low IQ and pathetic or disgusting (depending on his mood). He gave people he didn’t like demeaning nicknames and took the insults of the school-yard to a whole new level. And the more he did so, the more the MAGA crowd seemed to love him – and the more he loved himself.

And not only the MAGA crowd, but the tech bros who saw how to take advantage of him as someone completely against regulation, particularly in the emerging AI technology. And so they brought him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, well gold, anyway, so that they could have the conditions needed to ramp up the worth of their companies. So much corruption. Bigly.

But now it seems that the people have spoken with a different voice, producing a miraculous mid-term result. This allows the Democrats to investigate the affairs of Mr Strumpf, his family and friends using subpoenas to compel them to supply all the records of their transactions and attend before their Congressional committees.

They can of course always ‘take the 5th ‘, refusing to answer questions. if, though, as anticipated, their boss pardons them all for everything, then that option is no longer open. Although they couldn’t then be imprisoned for their felonies, the scale of their wrong-doing would still be made plain for all to see and they would be open to civil actions to strip them of their criminal gains.

But it was not only the Americans who had hitched their wagon to the Donald. Another British narcissist, a certain Nigel Paul Farage, was an outstanding supporter. So then last Wednesday, when the results were announced, it must have been a severe shock. Not only had Trump lost Congress, but he had also lost the Senate, by margins so large that even Donny couldn’t claim them somehow to have been a victory, as he did with the 2020 results.

Which meant that suddenly, Nigel’s best friend forever, the one who had provided him with the template needed to win the next general election, proved to have feet of clay.

For more than a decade Nigel had modelled himself on Donald. He had supported every policy statement and spent far more time with Donald than in his constituency of Clacton. His (latest) party, Reform, produced policies which were the mirror image of MAGA thinking. Wherever Trump went, he followed.

Contrary to his latest statements, he unequivocally backed Donald in going to war on Iran. On 26th February he tweeted “The Prime Minister needs to change his mind on the use of our military bases and back the Americans in this vital fight against Iran!”

He obviously felt that he needed to keep in Trump’s good books. As a fellow narcissist, Farage would have long since recognised the need to flatter the greatest narcissist of our time. For as we know, Farage too must be agreed with - or else you are no longer part of his inner circle - or even his outer circle.

In imitation of his hero, only last year he sent a “UK Doge” unit into Kent County Council, explicitly modelled on Elon Musk’s chainsaw attack in Washington. But what had looked like a winner was actually a humiliation. This to the extent that even GB News, ‘Farage TV’ in all but name, has had to report:

‘Councillors concede Elon Musk-inspired review failed to uncover major savings at county council’

Reform UK councillors running Kent County Council have acknowledged that their flagship efficiency review failed to uncover significant waste, undermining repeated claims by senior party figures that local authorities are riddled with mismanagement and excess spending. The admission follows a nine-month review led by Reform councillors after the party took control of the authority, having pledged to expose widespread waste and inefficiency in council finances. The findings represent an embarrassment for the party, whose national leadership has repeatedly argued that dramatic savings could be achieved through an overhaul of local government spending.

The comments cast doubt on assertions made by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and former party chairman Zia Yusuf, who have both insisted that local councils are plagued by fraud and reckless spending... Those claims now appear difficult to reconcile with the conclusions reached by Reform’s own councillors overseeing the authority’s finances. Their leader, Mr Chamberlain, was also candid in his assessment of the previous Conservative-led administration at County Hall. He said members of the former council “weren’t crazy” and described them as “business people”.

And then, earlier this year, Fagman promised an ICE-style programme of “mass deportations” if he got elected. Donald had pledged that it would be a big vote winner. Now, we see that it was a major factor in his loss. As Paul Krugman rightly says,

‘The midterm result was a tale of many backlashes. There was the backlash of erstwhile Trump voters, against high gasoline prices and the Iran War. There was the backlash of Hispanic voters against ICE and Trump’s horrific deportation policy. That of Black voters against Republicans’ gerrymandering to negate their votes and Trump’s open racism. There was the backlash of women against the destruction of abortion rights and suppression of the Epstein files. There was a backlash of ordinary families against the loss of healthcare coverage. There was a general backlash against Trump’s bottomless corruption and lies. And there was a backlash of patriotic Americans against Trump’s bromance with Putin.

So then Farage will have somehow to repudiate Donald. Without the Trump template, however, the Reform cupboard looks bare. There is nothing in it which the Conservatives aren’t already proposing. Nigel has surrounded himself with a motley band of mediocre colleagues (just like Donald!) and, if the midterms proved anything, it’s that even Elon Musk quantities of dosh do not translate into votes. $500 million spent on promoting the Texan Republican candidate, only to lose very bigly. What then will Farage do with his paltry £75 million? Join Marine Le Pen in France?

9 November 2026

Paul Buckingham