In the U.K., Nigel Farage's party is now bigger than the Tories

Who says British punk rockers can't be prophetic?

In the U.K., the Brits are "making plans for Nigel," albeit not quite in the way the punk band XTC had envisioned.

According to Breitbart News:

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party has now overtaken the UK’s traditional party of government, the Conservatives, in membership, crossing the historic threshold weeks sooner than expected.

The most recent public figures for paid-up full members of the Conservative Party, certainly the oldest political party in the United Kingdom and possibly the oldest political party in the world, put it at 131,680 in November. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK — which he calls the youngest party in Britain — overtook that figure late Thursday morning following a Christmas Day surge in sign-ups.

At the time of publication the figure continued to rise and has made it to 132,200 members.

Voters are embracing Farage and his party in droves, with membership (in the U.K., you have to pay for your party membership) surging at a faster rate than forecasters had predicted.

It's very dramatic -- and could hail a new era of U.S.-U.K. comity in their longtime alliance.

Years ago, Tory political operatives in Los Angeles associated with the U.K. consulate there schooled me about peculiar ways of the British political system. I recall asking them why they couldn't run William Hague, an impressive conservative who didn't win on an earlier go, and they said it was simply impossible. I don't remember all the details of why this could never be, the lingering lesson I was left with was that the U.K. system was rigid, with change and second chances virtually unheard of.