In 1967, John Fogerty, lead songwriter for the band Creedence Clearwater Revival, wrote the song “For what it’s worth.” Unusually at that time, the title of the song never actually appeared in the lyrics and subsequently, it became far more recognisable for its haunting and darkly observational first line: “There’s something happening here, and what it is ain’t exactly clear.” While the song has been associated with anti-Vietnam war protests and featured in a number of film and documentary soundtracks on that subject, Fogerty actually wrote the song after witnessing clashes between young people and the police in the Sunset Strip neighbourhood of Los Angeles. As local authorities and businesses tried to shut down or impose strict curfews on clubs frequented by young people, the youth took to the streets to demonstrate what they saw as the early manifestation of a curb on their wider civil rights.

There’s no doubt that the political protests that were blowing across the country at that time were influential, and over a number of years, a form of “system demolition” took hold as citizens could see that conservative and right-wing governments were veering ever closer to outright and dangerous authoritarianism.

In April of this year, a deeply corrupt and thoroughly embedded authoritarian government in Europe was removed from power by what some commentators have described as “a democratic revolution.” After sixteen years in power, the pro-Russian and US-backed incumbent, Viktor Orban and his Fidesz party were decisively trounced by Peter Magyar’s Tisza party which achieved a two-thirds majority in the Hungarian parliament.

By any measure, Orban was a power-hungry neo-fascist whose abhorrent views on a whole range of issues were designed to instill fear and mistrust at home, aggravate other members of the European Union, and please his similarly deranged friends in Moscow and Washington. He described immigrants as “poison” and labelled every single one of them as terrorists. He continually threatened and shut down media organisations who were critical of his government. His cosying up to Putin was second only to his reverence for President Xi of China and his increasing distaste for the EU and the West. He looked on while some of his government ministers wallowed in corruption, using public funds to finance election campaigns and taking bribes and kickbacks from individuals with vested interests.

After sixteen years of this seemingly unbridled right-wing rampage and cash grab, Hungarians, across all demographics, decided that they had enough and Orban was crushed. There is almost always a ceiling for corrupt, authoritarian politicians and governments and once the screen has been pulled back, the people can see that the wizard is nothing more than a self-serving shyster who doesn’t give a toss about ordinary voters or the public at large.

Talking of which, and also in April of this year, a certain Mr Nigel Farage, leader of the sleazy shambles known as the Reform Party, was riding high in the electoral polls, no doubt bolstered by Keir Starmer’s wooden stint as prime minister, the Conservatives ambling towards complete obscurity, and a right-wing media continuing to scaremonger the public about “migrant invasions.” Incidentally, Farage had previously praised Orban as “the strongest leader in Europe.” However, and almost inevitably, Farage’s bubble was about to be burst by a bout of seriously dodgy financial transactions, and a velvet revolution in the Labour Party.

First of all, there was the £5 million “gift” from a Thai crypto billionaire which Farage insisted came with no strings attached. Farage’s subsequent visit to the Governor of the Bank of England to discuss loosening regulation of the crypto industry was, of course, a complete coincidence. Then there was Farage’s “friend” George Cottrell, a convicted fraudster who transferred £2 million to his mother just before she donated a total of approximately £500,000 to Reform. Then Farage was caught in a Channel 4 sting operation in which he and his colleagues discussed taking and concealing money from a US donor, completely against UK electoral law. Watching Farage’s numerous and hilarious attempts to dismiss all of this as an establishment stitch-up and maintain his complete innocence, was like watching Tommy Cooper trying to convince his audience that he was a serious magician.

And then Andy Burnham turned up. Although it’s early days in his stint as Prime Minister, Burnham has connected with large swathes of the electorate in ways that Farage can only dream about. In fact, Farage has more or less disappeared from view since the money scandals and the new PM setting out his stall. Polls in September showed that Reform was at its lowest in two years, while Labour were on the up.

There’s something happening here, and it’s becoming increasingly clear.