THE BIG READ: What Nigel Farage needs to learn from the career of Nick Faldo

Sometimes a performer must change his technique if he is to reach new heights

Photo by Courtney Cook on Unsplash

IN THE mid-1980s Nick Faldo took a decision that would go on to lift him from the ranks of players capable of brilliant rounds “on their day” to become instead Britain’s greatest ever golfer.

Faldo, who had already established himself as one of Europe’s big-name players, decided to take the huge risk of “deconstructing” his swing and then rebuilding it from scratch. He had identified within it an element of unreliability that was holding him back from reaching the very highest level.

For two years he laboured on honing a new technique and his form suffered in the meantime. But in the summer of 1987, everything came good as he won the British Open at Muirfield. He had found a way to “address the ball” with more precision and control. Two more Open Championship victories followed, along with three US Masters wins.

I was put in mind of Faldo when considering the current predicament of somebody who shares the same initials: Nigel Farage. He has built a political persona which has already brought him appreciable success as a brilliant maverick. With Ukip, he led the campaigning pressure that forced the EU referendum. Then he set up a pop-up political party – the Brexit Party - to block a mushrooming establishment plot to keep us in the EU. Most recently he secured a parliamentary “bridgehead” for the Reform Party at last year’s general election. In all of these achievements, the remarkable extent of his dominance over his various parties – even to the extent of being able to remove Richard Tice as Reform leader on a whim - was vindicated.

Since then he has led his current party in the familiar, “cheeky chappie” Brand Nigel style that has enabled him to forge a powerful connection with millions of voters. Broad brush strokes and killer soundbites are still prioritised over detailed policy work. Often he plays things apparently “off the cuff”, making pronouncements which blind-side his supporting cast. One thinks of his recent suggestion that Britain should consider bringing back Shamima Begum and other jihadis held in the Middle East.

Brand Nigel’s standing in the US market – potentially a source of lucrative future income – is also clearly driving the stance of Reform, leading it to line up behind Donald Trump even on matters upon which Trump’s approach is unpopular with the UK electorate.

Since last year’s election, this formula has generally worked pretty well. Reform’s poll ratings have soared from the 14 per cent vote share they achieved last July to an average of 26 per cent just a couple of weeks ago.

Yet Farage is now facing a strategic fork in the road. Can he afford to go on running with his big fish-small pond persona when his new aim is not just to give establishment parties a bloody nose but actually to become prime minister? To put it in Faldo terms, he is out to win some majors.

To me, something just doesn’t feel quite right with this. Important policy issues in