The American system is barbaric, but Americans accept it because it's all they've ever known. They think it's just the way the world works. Even with that, it's becoming more and more of a political issue. It's much more widely talked about then it used to be, despite efforts to shut the conversation down by branding it all socialist propaganda.
There is a real groundswell of anger building up, which was most evident in the reactions to health insurance mogul Brian Thompson being shot dead in the street in 2024. People were pleased that he died. They laughed. They celebrated it. They wanted to see him and his ilk fear for their lives. I suspect a majority felt this way, even if they were smart enough not to say so out loud. Even if they wouldn't have picked up the gun themselves, they were still satisfied at the outcome - which is a major shift, and a dangerous one. I doubt this shooting will be the last instance of such violence in America.
Because the blueprint has been established now, for how to do this effectively. How to get the public on side. You don't go crazy and shoot up your local insurance office full of ordinary people doing their jobs. No. You do a surgical strike against the people at the top making millions off all that misery. Then much of the public stays on your side, and a significant portion of them will turn out to support you. Last I heard, Mangione's trial was scheduled for June? I'm sure this conversation will come roaring back to life in the American consciousness as the date draws nearer. They've taken the death penalty off the table, but it's difficult to see any outcome that doesn't pour more fuel on the fire of all this. And for many, the lesson will have already been learned, and the example set. As with mass shootings, imitators are almost guaranteed. It's not a case of if this will happen again, but when, and what the consequences will be.
Now, to the UK.
Farage is already considered by much of his original voter base to be someone who sold out their values and let the party become Tory-lite. The middle class podcast sphere likes to talk about Farage as if he's an immensely talented politician, with some sort of aura of charisma. He really isn't. He's a froggy little man with the soul of a Tory, and the party eventually morphing into the Conservatives under a new name was an obvious possibility, right from the start of all this. I don't believe most people voted Farage because they loved the man himself. (Despite the attempts on both sides to pretend he's got a cult of personality akin to Donald Trump.) He may not realise it, but he was only ever a tool for people to express their anger at the system.
The disaffected working class who carried Farage through Brexit have already begun to turn on him. He's shown his true colours, and they don't want another toff selling them out, and watering down his promises. Many have already ditched him for Advance, or Tommy Robinson. Or they're starting to believe politics only serves the rich, and can no longer be an effective way for them to get anything they want out of life. These days, when I hear worried conversations about the possibility of Reform getting in in the next election, the fear is not that the working class will vote them in. It's that a disaffected middle class will. That says everything about the current position of the party.
Anyway. In the scenario you're imagining, Farage gets in, and then he guts the NHS and brings in an American style healthcare system, where the cost of care brings ordinary Britons to their knees. Don't get me wrong - I don't disagree that he's greedy and venal enough to want that, or even arrogant enough to try it. I just think you can only push people so far. The healthcare model Americans have is all they've ever known, and their country's history means "socialist healthcare is Communism in disguise!" is still effective to this day in shutting down debate. But generations of Brits have grown up with the NHS, and McCarthyite taboos hold no power here. People won't just roll over on something that affects their lives in such a real way. There will be a fight. Not for the ideal of the NHS, but the actual reality of it. It will get ugly.
Historically, Britain is seen as quite a docile country. We're not seen as a country of revolution and uprisings. But any student of history will know this isn't quite true. Things can get as bloody on these shores as anywhere else, if the right conditions are in place. And if Farage was to get into government under the premise that Reform is the last chance democracy has of working for the people . . . and then he shits all over the poor and the working class and the lower middle class, the same way Tory and Labour have done . . . and then he takes away the NHS?
It ends with his head on a pike.