[davidjay]

The departure of Farage could be a 'be careful what you wish for' moment. Without him the dustbin voters could well move back to a more populist Tory party while the conspiracy theorists and borderline fascists might think that the Establishment did for moderate Nigel so may as well go full-on with Lowe. The best option is to keep Farage limping along, retaining enough support to stop both those things but never seriously threatening again.