This country has never embraced political extremism. While many nations across Europe succumbed to fascist or communist dictatorships, the UK remained a beacon of democratic stability.

George Orwell believed the greatest buffer the British people had against authoritarianism was their innate common sense and sceptical brand of humour.

Our instinctive reaction to jumped-up demagogues, he wrote, is not to follow them but to laugh at them.

However, that doesn’t mean we are passive democrats. We trust elected politicians to serve our interests. If that trust is broken, faith in democracy is weakened.

It is then that extremists crawl out of the woodwork, hoping to turn genuine public discontent into hatred and bigotry.

This is precisely the strategy of Restore Britain. Hoping to capitalise on the rise of Reform UK, it paints itself as a broadly similar, but more hardline version.

Thanks to revelations in The Mail on Sunday, we now know it is far darker than that. It acts as cover for neo-Nazi sympathisers, white supremacists and other assorted crazies. And it’s clear their involvement in the party is sanctioned from the top.

Multimillionaire founder Rupert Lowe says he’s happy for anyone to join him, including far-Right rabble-rouser Tommy Robinson. 

In normal times, this ramshackle excuse for a party could be dismissed as hopeless cranks. But these are not normal times.

By splitting the Right-wing vote in Thursday’s Makerfield by-election, Restore could help propel Andy Burnham into Downing Street.

Latest polling shows that if those planning to vote for Mr Lowe’s party (about 8 per cent of the total) switched to Reform UK, Mr Burnham could be beaten.

If not, he will win at a canter and may be Prime Minister within months, ushering in an even more ruinously Left-wing administration than we have now.

The Daily Mail understands the anger and frustration – over migration, punitive taxes, wokery, high cost of living and much else – that might tempt voters to look for radical solutions. But they must think with head as well as heart.

A vote for Restore in this by-election is a vote for Burnham and an even further lurch to the Left. Is that what they really want? If not, they must back the Reform candidate, local plumber Robert Kenyon.

Electing him to Westminster would be the best way for the citizens of Makerfield to register their disapproval of this Government’s manifold failings. Reform is a serious party with serious aims.

Restore, by contrast, is a nest of extremist bigots. See through them, shun them, laugh at them. Above all, don’t vote for them.

Chasing shadows 

After Royal Marine commandos boarded and detained a sanctions-busting Russian oil tanker in the English Channel, Sir Keir Starmer was jubilant.

He said: ‘This successful operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fuelling Putin’s war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide.’

His words would carry more weight if nearly 200 of these ‘shadow fleet’ vessels hadn’t been allowed to pass through those same waters since March without any consequence.

If Sir Keir really wants Russia to take Britain seriously, he should properly fund our military instead of trying to defend the realm on the cheap.

Strength and sustained commitment are all Putin understands. This action is little more than a gesture – and he knows it.