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Could a Trump figure emerge in the UK

 Politics is about money!   Raising it and spending to convince the people that your message resonates the best for their own interests.  

In the US each candidate is responsible for the vast majority of his fundraising, the party contributes almost nothing, they provide logistical support and all kinds of things, but the candidates are responsible for all of it.  That process starts in the caucuses and other types of local voters choosing their candidate.  Part of the problem with that type of funding is that radicalism can really get in the way.  Right or left it doesn't matter because those who participate in the selection of the candidate are a minuscule subset of the electorate in each election.   So if you run in a deeply Republican district, there only people you have to convince are the more ardent supporters, the rest count for nothing.  There are seats in the US (UK too by the way) where less than 1% of the population decided on who will be their elected official.

In the UK the system is somewhat different, first, all the money is collected in the centre. Obviously, candidates who raise a lot, get a lot.  But the impact on individual races is muted, the money is raised for the party.  In the selection process, take for example Liz Truss as the MP, the selection process, like everywhere else is very local, Ms. Truss is not local, she is a carpetbagger, which is fine, she was seen as bright and well-spoken conservative and so the was the favourite of the Party, but in the selection process, there was some competition.

A sitting MP is hard to dislodge, first, they are involved in their district, they have surgeries where local people can get a resolution to their problems, they also arrange events for the party faithful and as such have a finger on the pulse.  The weakness of the British system is that once an MP is sitting, it is very difficult to dislodge him or her.  

However, could a figure like Trump emerge, the short answer is Boris, he was well-spoken certainly a better orator than Trump (not that hard these days), and was a demagog.   No doubt about that.   His biggest flaw is that he was a liar, and he got caught.  Eventually, the Conservative MPs had enough and fired him.  

So, while a Trump-like character can emerge in the UK, there is usually some form of party policing that stops them from long-term success.   Granted what Trump seems to be achieving now is nothing short of a religious cult.  He has even modified the US national anthem to praise the Jan 6 rioters.  Frankly calling that Party "Republican" is a stretch, it's the Church of Trump, nothing less where total and unquestioned devotion is demanded. 

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