Which brings us to Nigel Farage. This week we received yet another reminder that the supposed “liberals” will stop at nothing – and I mean nothing – to prevent him from becoming Prime Minister, just as they previously did everything in their power to reverse the Brexit referendum. The coming battle will be both political and deeply personal. We have already witnessed attempts to manipulate the democratic process; that may prove mild compared with what will be unleashed on the Reform UK leader in the months ahead.
The hypocrisy is breathtaking. The very same commentators who accused Kemi Badenoch of being too harsh on Rachel Reeves during her Budget response are now hurling grotesque slurs at the MP for Clacton, branding him a neo-Nazi. The BBC even joined in. A segment on Radio 4’s Today programme questioned Mr Farage’s “relationship when he was younger with Hitler”, a framing so ludicrous it was almost comical, were the implications not so serious. Suddenly, a chorus of self-appointed critics has emerged, eager to throw decades-old allegations at the wall in the hope that something, anything, might stick.
– Camilla Tominey (£)
Farage has been in politics for 30 years. For about 20 he’s had a high profile. In at least the past ten he’s had a very high profile. So after huge amounts of previous scrutiny, journalists think we are supposed to take any of these ‘new revelations’ seriously?
When I first became interested in politics it was widely known that the tabloid newspapers treated their readers like morons. Nowadays the ENTIRE media behave worse than the tabloids did 20 years ago.
The only way it may make sense to me is if the press are trying to put Nigel, like they would say in wrestling, ‘over’ by printing such ludicrous rubbish that the press and co look like desperate lying bullies and thus generate sympathy for Nige.
But the Main Stream Media, especially the BBC, and the (previously) main Political Parties are increasingly distrusted, for good reasons. Perhaps most people experience some disquiet, but others are campaigning against it with increasing vigour.
Every revelation about news management, every overreaction by the Police to Free Speech, every attack on democracy by politicians, just makes people look for an alternative to the machine Establishment. I don’t think British people are naturally ‘revolutionary’ but perhaps the hypocrisy on display is making them ‘rebellious’.
Is Farage the Messiah? No, but neither is he just a naughty boy. He is perhaps the spoke to stick in the wheels of the juggernaut.
I would have thought that Farage would be able to use this nonsense to his advantage by pointing out how absolutely pathetic it is. There is also that Jesus quote, let he who is without sin cast the first stone, back when I was at school we used words like spaz and poof regularly as insults, and probably quite a lot worse. There was a lot of general rough and tumble, there was a willow tree near the playground and some thought it was great fun to break a thin branch off it, sneak up behind you and whack you across the back of the legs with it. Anyone could dig up some crap on anyone, it wouldn’t even have to be true as it would be impossible to disprove after fifty odd years.
Couldn’t we start digging up dirt on lefties? I think we’ve all of us said things in the past that were questionable.
And, while we’re at it, try and make certain things unacceptable. For example, is it really acceptable that someone running for high public office was a member of the Communist Party years ago?
Public trust in the bbc has never been lower yet still they persist on their maniacal course.
One notable consequence is that regular people are no longer afraid to voice their opinions about what were once taboo subjects.
In a sense it’s a shame that so few watch question time as perceptions that the establishment in general and the bbc in particular despise us and hate our guts would be strengthened tenfold.
As we witnessed first with Covid and then with the campaign against Liz Truss, the establishment will say anything – no lie is too much for them.
Remember thousands of people died – when effective Early treatments for Covid were available, effective Early treatments they CHOOSE not to use. They also pushed insane “lockdown” policies. And then they pushed toxic Covid “vaccines” – which were not vaccines at all.
With Liz Truss they blamed “tax cuts” which-did-not-even-happen (that never went into effect) for the results of their own insane monetary policies – monetary policies they had used to fund the 400 Billion Pounds (“not much if you say it quick”) of lunatic Covid spending, and which they then tried to cover with Bank of England speculation, which made the situation worse – like trying to recoup your gambling losses by doubling your bet – and losing again.
The establishment are quite capable of saying just about anything about Mr Nigel Farage – if “schoolboy racist” does not work, they are likely to claim that he sexually abused young girls or young boys (or both). “Victims” may well be being prepared right now.
Also remember that the British establishment is just the local branch of the international establishment – the “International Community” – and we know what lies they are capable of – “Trump is an agent of Putin who rigged the 2016 election for him”, “Trump is a rapist” and on and on.
Most Americans no longer believe the media, or the “Justice” system (the lying judges and so on), British people are in the process of learning the same lesson.
Wondering why they make (or feign) such a fuss about what Nigel might have joked fifty years ago when there are open anti-semites in parliament today whom nobody calls out
rhoda klapp – that is an easy one. “We do not hate Jews – we just hate Zionists” would be the response.
Indeed they can produce “Jews”, such as the leader of the Green Party, who are just as eager to exterminate the seven million “Zionists – between the river and the sea” as is the rest of the alliance between Islam and the Left – an alliance that will break down at some point, but not till after the “capitalist Jews” are destroyed.
“Capitalist Christians” and “Capitalist Atheists” are also marked for destruction.
Dulwich College? In the 1970’s? The devil, you say . . . . . .
I think it’s sometimes hard for many younger whippersnappers to grasp the different tenor of those times, in the days before everybody suddenly developed self-esteem, and discovered their fragile ‘feelings’, and what used to be a schoolyard commonplace suddenly became ‘bullying’.
Being – how can I say? – passing-familiar with the time-and-place, I can attest that schoolchildren then were more-or-less semi-feral little savages to their contemporaries, and jibes and insults 100x-worse than what is alleged of Farage were common currency on every playground in the UK. I can still vividly recall a piece printed in the school magazine which made passing reference to ‘rubber-lipped s**bos”, and nobody turned a hair. The past is a different place, they do things differently there, and it’s juvenile and hypocritical to judge the words of a 14-year-old in 1972 by the standards of polite discourse in 2025, or to suggest that the words of the 14-year-old then reflect the thoughts and opinions of the 60-something-year-old today. If that is the new standard, then I, for one, am for the high jump – and, I suggest, is everybody else that lived in that time and place. I’m sure that the quad at Eton in the 1970’s resounded to just the same sorts of expressions, let’s go back and canvass the fellow pupils of some other politicians from back then and see what they recall . . . . .
llater,
llamas
Spot-on.
Fun fact: Raymond Chandler went to Dulwich.
Also P.G. Wodehouse.
llater,
llamas
it is part of the process of making Farage [and those who do not disagree with him] into a “non-person”. The Nomenklatura, the unofficial-yet-real Ministry of Agit-Prop, and if needed the coercive organs of State Power will continue until they destroy him/them. The british people no longer have any real input into their governance. Mind you, here on our side of the Atlantic, the Left is working for the same goals, and not totally unsuccessfully.
Subotai Bahadur
@LLamas & Rhoda. I’ve been saying this for ages. If this is how the game is played, then that’s how you play it. There is no merit in “playing by the rules & a straight bat” when the people you’re playing against are cheating & fouling. Go dig dirt up on them & use it. If you can’t find any, invent it, as long as it’s not easily deniable. Or you will lose.
Actually, that’s it with the sporting metaphors. Because it isn’t sport for public schoolboys. It’s real life & real life ain’t sporting.
@bloke in spain
The sporting metaphor that comes to mind is if you cannot beat your opponent with your skills you play the man, not the ball. So the previously major political parties see the challenge but cannot do anything but commit fouls and hope the referee doesn’t notice. And the sports commentators aid and abet them.
The mistake is not realising it has always been like that. But like the cardsharp, they try to prevent you spotting the moves with distraction
I could be wrong but it seems to me that there is a bit of a delusion going on. I don’t know what he said but the only people who are shocked, I tell you shocked, about some shit Farage said on the playground at school are the people who already hate him. People who like him will just dismiss it, and people in the middle it seems are far more likely to think “that’s all you got?”
Which is to say it plays well to the base but won’t actually move the needle one iota. What I think the left fails to understand is that the accusation of “racism” has completely lost its sting since it has been played so much and in such ridiculous ways. I honestly wonder if there is a single person in Britain who hasn’t been accused of being a racist at one point or other. Accusations of anti-Semitism I think are stronger but the idea that the left should be playing that card is so ridiculous that it is like the pot not only calling the kettle black, but claiming it is descended from a pure Aryan race of pots as well.
Me? I think the guy must but up for sainthood if that REALLY is the best dirt they can find on him. I promise you, I’m a pretty decent person, but you could dig up a lot worst dirt on me with very little effort.
I don’t think that’s the goal anymore.
I think we’re all so locked in to our positions and philosophies and teams that an actual team or position change is vanishingly rare.
These attacks are instead aimed at keeping people who are already committed to the team hyped up and angry. People vote more often when they’re angry. They’re turnout tools, not persuasion tools.
That’s one of our failings on the right. We’re too laid back. If we worked harder to simply foster outrage, our vote totals would increase.
(This is one of Trump’s strengths. He fosters outrage quite well.)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/12/07/farage-reported-to-police-over-election-fraud/
Drip, drip, drip.
But it’s not going to work this time.
I think these attacks on Farage are a desperate but ultimately futile lashing out by a dying liberal establishment.
The truth is that other than the left, no one really cares about accusations of racism and antisemitism anymore. The public at large have had it with the witchfinders.
Yes, this is pretty much in line with my post above. The thing is, I don’t really remember that much about my schooldays, it was over fifty years ago, I couldn’t remember the names of more than a handful of the kids that I was at school with anyway.
The point isn’t just to delegitimise Farage, but to cancel the conversation of anyone that supports Reform (which I, on the whole, do not. At least until we get to see some meat on the bones of the policies they wish to enact).
They are now playing the “Election Expenses” smear card against Mr Farage – the laws are so complex that this sort of smear is easy.
If that fails – they will try the child sex abuse smear card against Mr Farage.
The modern establishment is vile – utterly vile.
I was at school in the 70s, and it was a time before political correctness. Several of my masters were WWII veterans, and you did not get away with much from them. If a few playground taunts are the worst they have got, they have got nothing.
Trump was accused of rape, stealing secrets, trying to steal elections, mortgage fraud, basically everything the Democratic crime family actually did. None of it stuck, thank God. I think the pathetic and threadbare nature of these allegations against Farage will rebound to his favour. Everyone can remember schooldays. Is that it?
JohnK
Yes – but President Trump is a prisoner which sabotages him at every turn.
The Senate, supposedly Republican controlled, has not even ratified hundreds of key positions – let alone cleaned up elections by ending unchecked “mail-in-ballots”, electronic voting machines, and demanding proof of citizenship on voting. GOVERNMENT SPENDING is also just carrying on – because “Leader Thorne” believes the “filibuster rule” (which the Democrats will end as soon as they are in the majority) is more important than achieving anything.
If there is hope – I do not see it.
As for Britain – it is best not to think about this nation too much, its fate will be cruel.
Paul:
It seems that Congress is in the hands of RINOs, and there is not much Trump can do about it. The next president, if, God forbid, it is a Democrat, could undo all his executive orders at the stroke of a pen. Indeed, I believe Sleepy Joe did that in January 2020 when he could still sign documents himself, without the autopen.
That is before we consider the Democrat appointed federal judges who strike down much of what Trump has signed.
A British prime minister with a working majority has more power de facto than an American president, and that might give us a glimmer of hope for the day Starmer’s Red Terror ends, assuming there is still a functioning country then.
JohnK – I agree with you about the United States, I would that it were not so – but it is so, the “leadership” of Congress is utterly useless. It is hard to come to any positive conclusion about the future of America. But one has to hope that somehow, somehow, America will be saved – for without America, Western Civilization will fall – without the United States, Western Civilization will be utterly destroyed. This is what anti American libertarians, such as my old sparring partner Dr Sean Gabb, never seemed to grasp.
But I fundamentally disagree with you about the United Kingdom – far from having more power than an American President, a British Prime Minister who-disagrees-with-the-establishment has no power at all – indeed can be removed with ease, look what happened to Liz Truss, or (even back in 1990 – when the establishment had vastly less power than they do now) to Margaret Thatcher.
Still perhaps a Reform Party Majority in the House of Commons will fundamentally change matters – I know that it is what you hope JohnK, and I hope you are correct, and that I am wrong.
I see no hope for this land – none, and I wish I had not lived to see this situation.
Paul:
The Blob is indeed powerful, but they could not have got rid of Liz Truss if she had had the support of her MPs. She did not. They had voted for Rishi Sunak over her, and the membership voted for her over him. So the Blob had no problem getting rid of her.
I feel that if Farage becomes PM he will do so with a loyal group of MPs, and a mandate for change, so I have hope. You always need some hope. Starmer’s regime cannot last forever.
Trump will be president until January 2029, but if the RINOs lose the mid-term elections, I agree there will not be much he can do. Indeed, as you say, with the filibuster, there is not much he can do now, apart from sign Executive Orders which are subject to the whim of Democratic judges.
Reform’s grandees are well aware what they must overcome in order to defeat the Blob.
Well the proof of the pudding again is in the eating. Opinion polls a couple of days back put Farage a point higher in the polls.
One thanks the Guardian, its journalists & its readers for working so strenuously in the interests of Reform. Let’s give ’em a round of applause, eh?
Iron law of oligarchy.
As a candidate, Trump was very good at appealling over the heads of Republican to the public.
In office, Trump becomes prisoner of such elites.