Don't fear Reform (too much...)
or why Reform UK is a force for good despite their best efforts.
Neo-Liberalism is a hollow dying pseudo-ideology, sooner or later it needs to be replaced, before or after it collapses in on itself, which it is currently in the process of doing.
The question is who is going to pick up the pieces when it does.
On the whole as I see it there are several main contenders, the Far Left, the Far Right, the Islamists, the Hard Right and the oligarchs.
Basically pick your poison...
For those of us who don't want extremes, the hard right seems to be the best option, the oligarchs we'll have to deal with in all scenarios.

The hard Left is too unwilling to detach itself both from the centre and from the far Left, so on the whole tends to get eaten by both (not to mention the Islamists...) even if that was not the case, it still leaves too many people too underwhelmed..

The hard Right, or atleast Reform UK is more diligent at trying to distance itself both from the centre and from the far-right, so they are their own thing.

Will Reform lurch further to the Right? I don't think so.
The thing is with democracy most people are quite moderate and while extremists will vote for moderates, moderates don't tend to vote for extremists.
Also a core part of Reform's supporters are the types of people who would have traditionally voted Labour and actually want some degree of economically left wing policies. 
While many, perhaps most people in Reform would like it to become more right wing, the forces pulling them leftward are far too strong, to become more mainstream Reform has to move towards the centre and as it moves towards the centre and becomes more mainstream it will inevitably attract more centrist members.
Another factor is because of it's reputation as "the fascist party" it means that they are under much greater scrutiny, than the Conservatives and Labour, who have done very questionable things mostly under the radar...

In a way Reform is like a spider slipping down the walls of a bath tub, it may or may not want to escape the gravity of democracy, but at the end of the day it just can't, it needs to court popularity.
If it somehow escapes the leftward pull and goes too far right, some people would split off and form a new party that would replace Reform in the same way Reform took the place of UKIP..

So ultimately because people are afraid of Reform, Reform is not something to be scared of, it's a paradox but what's wrong with paradoxes? 

Is there a risk of Reform becoming just like the Conservatives?
Yes, but I think the Conservatives have set a bad enough example to prevent that from happening. 

There are things Reform stand for that are probably to be liked, they notionally believe in Liberal Democracy (which is falling out of fashion and being increasingly undermined) which is more than could be said for some... they are, so they claim very keen on freedom of expression in a time when that is being clamped down on, they are willing to respect our national identity in a way that is much more solid than the lip-service from other parties at a time when it is threatened in various ways. You can spin in how you like, ultimately Identity is a psychological necessity we cannot function properly without it, National identity is therefore a national necessity.
If we lose our identity as a nation we will cease to be a nation, we will disintegrate then other identities will take it's place, exactly what those identities are it's hard to say.
Although it's had it's ups and downs, Britain all things considered, is pretty good, I should think we are better off as we are, apart from anything else, major upheaval of that kind always involves major bloodshed, I don't think that's what we want... 

I think most people would agree with atleast some of their policies. 

For me a very important one is getting rid of the "Net Zero" targets, not because I'm against reducing carbon emissions, but because I think for various reasons this initiative actually increases global carbon emissions in various ways, is a disaster for our economy, is a misuse of the legal system and is very good for gas producing countries like Russia for instance... complete madness imo. 

Some might disagree, but might like polices such as replacing our first past the post voting system with proportional representation, removing the "Online Safety Act", abolishing or majorly reforming the House of Lords, lifting the income tax threshold, etc... 

Of course their policies toward immigration are more challenging, not as catastrophic as some might say, they will probably have to adapt to reality when needed, whatever that is.

Leaving the European Convention of Human Rights and replacing it with a "British Bill of Rights", is a major cause of concern for many, of course how much concern is warranted does somewhat depend on what the "British Bill of Rights" actually would contain, which they do not specify. 

The ECHR does to a certain extent undermine the sovereignty of Parliament, which if we want to be a democracy is quite important and the ECHR like anything is not 100% perfect. 

Safeguards to prevent horrible things from happening are probably a good idea, but I think both those who want to keep and remove the ECHR underestimate how toothless it is in the first place... 

Polices such as mandatory life sentences for drug dealing or trafficking, do seem ever so slightly too extreme, the interest they want to take in dictating the ideology taught in schools is concerning... 

They may or may not like UKIP be accused of being a party of fruitcakes and loonies, but it's much of a muchness now, after all the country is being run by a fruitcake already, Farage seems far less of an aspiring authoritarian dictator than Starmer.

There are many issues with Reform, there are many issues with Nigel Farage, there are many many issues with a lot of the other senior members of Reform, but on the whole I think that they are the only party heading in something like the right direction. 

Does that mean that in the next election you should vote for them?
Probably not, I don't think Reform are anywhere near ready to actually take power, winning the next election could be the worst thing that could happen to them, they would probably collapse in chaos. 

But in a few years after that then I think they could actually have transformed themselves into something more or less competent, while the rest of the parties have died from licking too many doorknobs or something... 

That's my hope anyway...