DO[L]GE
Department of Lost Government Efficiency
Many, many months ago, I did some investigations and wrote several pieces about the then, brand new and shiny, Reform DOGE — Department of Government Efficiency.
Within, what felt like, minutes, myself and many other commentators pointed out to it’s Chief Dreamer, Zia Yusuf, that they weren’t actually in government, that, in fact, their snappy acronym would have to be DOLGE — Department of Local Government Efficiency. A moniker that does not quite live up to the glitz and hype of its US counterpart, from which it was copied.
Yesterday, the FT ran an article to say that Kent County Council — the flagship Reform held seat in local government from which they launched with such fanfare — has actually had to levy a 5% increase on their resident’s council tax because … DOLGE.
What, and who, were the short-lived DOLGE All-stars?
In June of this year, we were subjected to the mass proliferation of Reform’s latest wheeze. It was, as you would imagine, covered by every media outlet for days on end. Photos of Zia Yusuf, Nathaniel Fried, Linden Kemkaran and Aaron Banks, graced the pages of every news outlet and website.
I had to go back in my 𝕏 feed to see what the exact timeline of events was; it’s actually much shorter than I remembered — I started looking into things on June the 2nd, and just a short five 𝕏 posts and 18 days later, Zia Yusuf had blocked me.
The protagonist of this, very short, tale is Zia Yusuf — once the Chairman of one of the iterations of Reform.1 Yusuf was an executive director at everyone’s favourite investment bank, Goldman Sachs, where he specialised in defence business. Following that, he went on to found and run an executive concierge company called Velocity Black that was sold in 2023, netting him a cool £31 million. Rumours swirl about Yusuf’s conduct whilst at the helm of this company and, more worryingly, about alleged false financial figures.
On becoming a multimillionaire, Yusuf coincidentally met Nigel Farage, in the run-up to the General Election, where he became Reform’s biggest donor. Incidentally, Yusuf was a paid up member of the Conservatives until after the General Election. It was only an exposé by the Guardian that saw him ejected by the Tories for being the Chairman of a rival party whilst still a Tory member.
Not the most auspicious of beginnings for his tenure at Reform, but his money carried him through the tough times, and he eventually replaced Richard Tice as Chairman of the Party in July 2024. His tenure at the helm of the party lasted around 11 months until he unceremoniously resigned, saying “I no longer believe working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time, and hereby resign the office.”
Two days later he was BACK BABY! Return of the Mac. His self-imposed expulsion lasted an incredible 48 hours until he returned as Head of DO[L]GE.
Now we’re all caught up on the head boy of DO[L]GE, who are the other players that were announced?
Aaron Banks — what can we say about Aaron Banks? Not very much, as it turns out, I really don’t want to be sued. Suffice to say, he bankrolled Brexit.
Linden Kemkaran was an ex-Tory councillor and now Reform leader of Kent County Council.
Nathaniel Fried is a tech prodigy who operates mainly in the OSINT field and dabbles in the crypto industry.
Brian Collins was newly elected in the May local elections in 2025 and serves as Deputy to Linda Kemkaran.
On June 3rd, I wrote that they had actually added another cabinet position to the DOLGE team — they created an additional executive post in the council hierarchy called, wait for it … Cabinet Member for Department of Local Government Efficiency — CMfDoLGE [yikes!].
An instant salary addition of £38,000 per year to Kent County Council’s already stretched wage budget.
So that was the team, back in those halcyon days of … <calendar rustling sound> … three months ago. What is left of the DOLGE team today in Kent County Council?
Well, the three council employees are still in position but on the 5th of June, it was widely reported that Zia Yusuf had quit Reform, taking Nathaniel Fried with him on his way out of the door. Aaron Banks only mentioned DOGE a couple of times in his short position as … consultant, I think. It was never really clear what he was doing there. Perhaps he was a bit bored, having recently lost the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) mayoral election.
At the time, I had the bit between my teeth and began submitting Freedom of Information Requests to each Reform led council. I wrote a template and went through the process of asking the following questions on a FOI basis.
As you can see, they were very targeted and specific — I did not want them to be able to answer with woolly, vague replies.
When the responses started coming in, it was quite a revelation. Especially from Kent and West Northamptonshire councils, who took the time to go into detail on each point. The resounding answer that I received was that absolutely no access had been granted to Reform or its newly invented DOLGE team.
I wrote this on the 25th of June.
And on July 1st, this.
The last paragraph there is the bit that sticks out. I realised very early on that this was a publicity stunt, nothing more. Since that point, they have mentioned DOGE less and less and to the point where Zia Yusuf has now been rebranded and rebadged as Head of Policy. The easiest job in Reform … they have no policies. Amirite!? Sorry.
So that was that, dear readers. An early summer fling that has faded like so many leaves on a tree. DOGE was a dead duck; after all the fanfares and many, many media appearances, it floated into a drain and was pulled to its untimely death.
Until some bombshell news yesterday in the Financial Times.
Kent County Council have declared that they will have to raise council tax on their residents by as much as 5% potentially. WHAT? I am absolutely shocked and stunned by this revelation*.
The DOLGE team at Kent appear to have pulled off a stunning ANTI-DOGE manoeuvre and are now reeling because they have to admit defeat. Not only have they failed to ‘slash costs and spending’ but they have actually increased it — substantially.
Who could have possibly foreseen this outcome? Well, everyone, as it turns out … except DOLGE pioneer and Chief Dreamer, Zia Yusuf.
I’d like to suggest a potential saving that could save the council £38,000 per year at this point — CMfDoLGE. I’ll leave it at that.
In all candour, though, this whole debacle gives us a genuine insight into the lack of seriousness in Reform UK. It’s a pattern that repeats whenever they announce a new policy, or re-announce the same policy three times. The transition from populist soundbites into actual governance is one they are woefully under prepared for. There is not a credible course of action amongst the entire party, be it at local or national levels.
We saw that with an incredible interview on Times Radio last week; Andrew Neil turned Richard Tice inside and out … and back again. You see, whenever the policy is examined, it crumbles. Populism is based entirely on rhetoric — Trump is winging that particular ideology in the US right now. It is not going well.
Imagine, just for a second, what would happen if Farage, Tice and Yusuf were let loose on our economy. Our defence. Our infrastructure. Terrifying, right? Because local government is a test, a stepping stone towards the national position, but they can’t manage it. They’ve failed their own tests already.
When they crow and announce pie-in-the-sky policies, they need to be held to account for them, not just allowed to move on to the next harebrained scheme. Reform should not be allowed to become the Wile E. Coyote of British politics — forever chasing the Road Runner of power but failing at every hurdle.
They either need to show success or be shown the door.
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They are known by many names. Reform UK Party Limited, Reform 2025 Ltd. to name but two.
*Sarcasm indicator.