Dear John,
This weekend, the United States carried out a military operation in Venezuela, bombing its capital city and capturing its president, Nicolás Maduro.
Whatever you think of Maduro, it’s hard to overstate what that represents. A sitting head of state seized by a foreign power, taken out of his country, and placed into that power’s domestic legal system.
The Trump administration is presenting it as law enforcement backed by military force. In reality, it’s an unlawful intervention that tramples sovereignty and the basic idea that there are rules even the powerful must follow.
And then there’s the language that followed. Talk of the US running Venezuela and overseeing its oil industry.
Why should we in the UK care? Because the story isn’t just about Venezuela. It’s about the global drift towards strongman politics, and the way democratic guardrails can be treated as optional when they become inconvenient.
When the world’s largest democracy behaves as if international law and accountability are obstacles to be bypassed, it normalises the idea that constraints don’t matter.
That courts, parliaments, regulators, and independent institutions are not there to provide checks and balances, but to be pushed aside when the leader decides the national interest requires it.
That logic travels quickly. Before you know where you are, breaking the rules which supposedly hold the country back is seen as just fine.
It’s the same worldview that says trust the leader, distrust the system. And it’s exactly the direction in which Nigel Farage has been pulling Britain for years.
This weekend’s polling underlines something many people still haven’t fully clocked: Farage is no longer simply shaping the conversation from the sidelines - there is now a credible path to power for Reform UK and its strongman leader.
In plain terms, Nigel Farage is in pole position in the race to Number 10.
That matters not because one man is uniquely dangerous, but because he represents a broader authoritarian style of politics that is rising across democratic countries. Politics that targets minorities as the cause of national decline, that treats independent scrutiny as sabotage, and that substitutes institutional competence with permanent culture war.
Farage’s appeal is built on a promise that he will cut through the establishment and act with unrestrained power. The risk is obvious.
Once you persuade enough people that constraints are illegitimate, you create permission to weaken them or do away with them altogether.
A government that doesn’t respect the role of watchdogs will ignore their warnings.
A movement that treats truth as a weapon will flood the public space with disinformation.
A party that thrives on grievance will keep escalating the sense of threat and emergency, because fear makes checks and balances feel like an unaffordable luxury.
That’s why the health of our democracy is not a side issue - it’s the central issue.
A functioning democracy is the difference between power that is accountable, and power that is simply exercised at the whim of one individual. It’s the difference between political disagreement and political intimidation. It’s the difference between a society where the strongest argument wins, and one where the loudest lie does.
Our focus is rooted in that reality. We’re working on fixing our democracy so that the policies that get implemented have wide public consent. If we don’t start there, we’ll never see the fundamental change so many people in this country desperately need.
That means tackling the vulnerabilities that authoritarians exploit:
An electoral system that can hand sweeping power to a party backed by a minority, creating false mandates and rewarding polarisation.
Dark money and opaque networks that allow wealthy interests - including some from beyond our borders - to shape British politics without meaningful scrutiny.
A disinformation environment where outrage is amplified more than reality, and where public debate becomes a contest of destructive narratives rather than productive ideas.
If those vulnerabilities remain in place, Farage doesn’t have to win a majority to win power. He only has to enrage or frighten a third of voters enough to take a chance on him. And once a political movement with contempt for constraint holds the levers of power, reversing the damage becomes far harder than preventing it.
Venezuela is a warning not because Britain is about to experience the same kind of dramatic military spectacle, but because it shows how quickly norms can break when those in power decide they no longer need to justify themselves to the electorate.
It shows how easily leaders can justify extraordinary actions on grounds of “common sense” or “national security”. And it shows the tendency, in moments of uncertainty, for ordinary people to exchange the real security provided by checks and balances for an illusory feeling that someone is in control.
We should reject that trade, because the point of democracy is not to make politics frictionless. The point is to ensure that power cannot be captured and abused without challenge. That friction is a welcome feature, not a bug.
We’ve enjoyed our Christmas and New Year break, but it’s time to get back to work. 2026 is going to be a crucial year in the fight to defend and strengthen our democracy.
All the best,
Conor McKenzie
Digital Engagement Manager, Open Britain
P.S. If you support our mission, please consider supporting our work with a donation of £20.26 today. Thank you!
