Nigel Farage is the most consequential British politician of the 21st century. Certainly a more important historic figure than any of the last eight Prime Ministers. Tony Blair is the only realistic rival.
Without Farage, the UK would never have left the European Union. Farage’s role in forcing the issue to the top of the political agenda, and putting electoral pressure on the Tory Party which Cameron sought to assuage through a referendum, was indispensable.
Subsequently Farage has been central to placing racism at the centre of British electoral politics. Farage has been key to redirecting the frustrations of ordinary people at twenty years of falling living standards, while wealth concentrates to an incredible degree in the hands of the billionaire class. That the blame for this has been loaded onto hapless immigrants, rather than those looting the economy, owes much to Farage. He has more than anybody made UK elections revolve around who can promise the most blood-curdling measures against immigrants.
In doing so, Farage appeared to have shattered the UK’s two party system. He certainly brought about the biggest shift in Labour/Tory dominance since 1921. It was entirely thanks to Farage splitting the right wing vote, that Starmer could gain a thumping parliamentary majority with just 32% of votes cast, under the UK’s appalling electoral system. Reform had the same effect in the recent Scottish parliamentary elections, enabling the SNP to win 57 out of 73 constituency seats despite a 10% drop in their vote.
Even after all the abuse hurled at Farage by the media in recent weeks, Reform still leads in UK opinion polls.
I am by nature diametrically opposed to Reform’s brand of politics. For me tolerance, empathy and compassion are the most important virtues in life, and I deplore the atavism and racism which is Reform’s stock in trade. I also detest their anti-intellectualism, while the stupidity of believing that the hardship to ordinary people caused by the structural imbalance of late capitalist systems, is somehow the fault of poor refugees, fills me with contempt.
I am however relaxed about leaving the EU.
It has become a right wing bloc of a very unpleasant nature, under leadership of von der Leyen and Kallas. The sight of MEP’s chanting “send them back” in the European Parliament was chilling. I am glad to be out of it. However the decision to reject all sensible trading arrangements with the bloc has greatly damaged the UK economy and harmed the prospects of young people. Again at base this was due to Farage’s electoral pressure on the Tory Party and Johnson’s desire to exploit the sentiment which Farage had created.
I would argue that Blair is in fact a more harmful and more evil figure than Farage.
Blair fundamentally changed British society by gutting the political instrument prepared to use the power of the state to improve the condition of the working class – the Labour Party – and turning it into another reliable agency of neoliberalism. The Uniparty in Britain started with Blair. His government furthered privatisation, particularly of services within the NHS, and ended free university education. Together with Brown, Blair brought in the ruinous Private Finance Initiative, to guarantee looting by private capital of public provision. Brown went on to bailout the banks in the biggest single transfer of wealth from poor to rich in history.
Blair killed hope and progress – in addition to the millions he killed in wars. He now rakes in large multiples of the money made by Farage, from even dodgier sources, while receiving none of the media scrutiny.
Farage of course did not change history on his own. He was relentlessly promoted by both state and corporate media for decades. He has been by a mile the most frequent guest on BBC Question Time, and the relentless media promotion started when he ought to have been an obscure figure, from a party,UKIP, which had never won an election.
In 2005, when I left the FCO and went on to fight Jack Straw in Blackburn in the General Election that year, Nigel Farage contacted me and invited me to lunch. As an Independent I had obtained 5.0% of the vote in Blackburn. UKIP had got 2.2% of the UK vote. Despite having just 2.2% of the vote and no MPs, Farage was already all over the BBC and massively promoted by the newspapers.
Farage said he wanted to explore my joining UKIP. I did a little research, and declined the invitation, finding too much evidence of racism. But interestingly, Farage’s approach to me emphasised his opposition to the Iraq War and to the attack on Human Rights in the name of the “War on Terror”. I believe he was genuine about this – and it is forgotten now that Farage was an outspoken, though in 2001 not very important, critic of the Iraq War – a position he has never repudiated.
All main party politicians are frontmen for other interests. They are owned and controlled by the defence industries, by Big Pharma, by the Israeli lobby, by media barons, by the media industry. Sometimes there is an element of symbiosis, where a politician becomes so confident in the power they exercise in the state as to feel able to address the billionaire class on equal terms, but this is rare.
Farage was promoted, systematically, into a major political figure by intense media coverage. He took full advantage of this, and is a canny operator. His bluff manner and ease in social situations makes him appear different to polished politicians – he can drink a pint without making it look like a rare stunt for the cameras. He was of course always a creature of the wealthy who promoted him so assiduously.
But having helped turn the dial of politics so far to the right, Farage has been left stranded as it moves rightward still. One problem for him is that Farage is not actually a real racist. He is prepared to pander to racism, to whip it up and exploit if for votes. That is perhaps morally worse than being an actual racist. But Farage does not actually hate brown or Muslim people.
Nor is he enthusiastic for war or NATO expansion.
In the age of the apartheid nurtured, openly racist Elon Musk, the forces that propelled the career of Nigel Farage now want Tommy Robinson and his ilk. Farage is not a stone cold killer. Trump has cooled his relationship with Farage, and even Farage’s eventual coming round to support Trump on Iran hasn’t changed that.
In UK politics, competing with Shabana Mahmood and Kemi Badenoch, Farage actually comes over as slightly more decent than they are. Politics have moved so far to the right that Farage has nothing really to offer.
When it comes to downright vicious authoritarianism, Robert Jenrick, Rupert Lowe and others now look a far better prospect to the billionaires, with Tommy Robinson as their King (mostly) over the water.
So poor Farage has been dumped. With an extraordinary coordination, all of the media suddenly savaged him. The BBC, the Murdoch press, the Daily Mail, all of those who put him in place have bitten great lumps out of him in just the last three weeks. Farage’s sordid personal financial dealings are revealed bit by bit.
I don’t see a way back for Farage, though he will get re-elected in Clacton. Mainstream media exposure has been his only weapon. It was devastating when fully lined up behind him, but what has he now?
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The question of opposition to immigration is, I think, more a social rather than an economic one. I say that with direct experience of fairly low grade employment and therefore exposure to the opinions of people around me.
It’s certainly easier to get the emotional juices flowing over social questions than economic ones.
I dunno, Craig. Farage is not a talented politician, but I see no reason to toss words like “racism” around because he wants to stop mass, unvetted immigration. Most people in Britain do. There’s only so much water the bottle will hold. And I’m not at all convinced by the argument that ordinary people are having their anger about declining living standards re-channelled into anti-immigrant sentiments by this bargain-basement Svengali. I don’t think they’re that stupid. It’s a completely materialistic argument that doesn’t allow for the public having genuine regard for their history and cultural inheritance.
Good points, A. Totally agree. Craig’s inherent decency at times blinds him to the quotidian. People are thoroughly sick of having * things * imposed on them from above and, as you say, don’t require to be – somehow? duped into feeling what they feel – based on their ACTUAL EXPERIENCE.
You’ll never hear it on MSM but formerly very Pro-Immigration countries like Denmark are drastically changing their policies on this issue in the face – of no longer deniable – very negative impacts on Crime figures, the Economy and, perhaps most importantly, Social Cohesion and Safety
Craig,
I have read your posts for many years. I have all your books (some of them signed). I don’t agree with everything you say, but I do agree with a lot of it, and I hugely value your insider knowledge from your FCO time. I also recognise a kindred spirit on matters of alcohol and women.
But you really don’t help your argument by writing things like:
“Blair killed hope and progress – in addition to the millions he killed in wars.”
I can see evidence for (a few at most) hundreds of thousands, but “millions”? No.
(although I am open to evidence to the contrary)
The Iraq war lead by Bush and Blair turned the PNAC from a right wing think tank policy to a bloody reality ie the redrawing of the Middle East – it transpires in support of greater Israel.
On the deaths caused by this bold project Brown university reports
“An estimated 3.6-3.8 million people died indirectly in post-9/11 war zones, bringing the total death toll to at least 4.5-4.7 million and counting.”
I think it is fair given the amount of promotional work for the project done by Blair, that the results can be laid at his (though no solely his) feet
https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/costs/human
I’m afraid that’s a bit too much of a stretch for me. Are we going to attribute all the deaths due to high temperatures in Europe to policies of previous political leaders who allowed fossil fuels to be burned? The directly attributable figure is in the hundreds of thousands for the entire wars, and to put them all on Blair’s head is absurd.
An excellent, perspicacious assessment of the Rise and ( no doubt, extremely well cushioned ) * Fall * of the least credible ‘ Everyman ‘ politician in recent times.
The drinking of pints of * bitter * whilst puffing performatively on fags ( blowing smoke in the public’s face as camouflage ) has been a pretty clever device to fabulate his image as ” Anti-Establishment radical ” – LOL! Now, as you delineate, his cover has been blown, the gig is up and his former backers have abandoned him for * fresher *, more unashamedly Muskite ( as opposed to Muskovite, * wink ) feral ideologues
Could he/Reform win the next G.E? Hard to say at this point but I reckon it’s still very possible, not to say likely. It will depend on which variant of the Zionist Atrocity Apologist + Putin Is Satan Uniparty is deemed the most dependable/malleable to keep those two prime objectives Top of the Props.
Of course * we * may by then be at no-loner-phony war with that formidable Russian Reggae maniac, ie Ras Putin and Crew but actual ” BOOM! there goes London, BOOM! Paree, more cash for * them * no life for * me * ” ( to paraphrase Randy Newman ) WAR : in which scenario in all likelihood there wouldn’t be a G.E but something calling itself a ” Wartime Admin ” or some such would be instigated: and which, given the appalling uniformity of compliance with the ‘ Russian Menace ‘ narrative of the current Political Caste, could be selected by lottery and have the desired effect, ie complete obedience to the Puppeteers interests.
Yes, one illustration of the complicity of Their BBC in whatever narrative/individual/group is to be promoted by the vested interests that are the real rulers of the UK, is the fact of Farage’s multiple appearances on ( Don’t ) Question Time and your own never appearance on same. Fortunately, the legacy media – broadcast & print – is declining drastically and rapidly in significance/influence. Unfortunately, not rapidly enough
Good morning Craig, I’ll just post this for now. You wrote:
– “Farage has been key to redirecting the frustrations of ordinary people at twenty years of falling living standards, while wealth concentrates to an incredible degree in the hands of the billionaire class. That the blame for this has been loaded onto hapless immigrants, rather than those looting the economy, owes much to Farage.”
Readers, please see below, though Ii haven’t watched this specific video from Gary Stevenson yet:
Gary Stevenson says Britain is FINISHED unless we fix this problem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPeP9xFrtP0
“A former trader who made millions in the City, Gary Stevenson has gained a huge online following as one of the left’s foremost campaigners against inequality.”
Oh please! If he genuinely believed this he would have already given away most of his millions to deserving causes. He’s obviously just an attention whore. Turning up for a Channel 4 interview in shorts and T-shirt just proves my point.
How do you know that he hasn’t ” given away most of his millions….”? And WTF does his sartorial appearance have to do with anything; do only * Suits * have credibility?
To those of us who aren’t crusties then yes, showing some decorum and respect is important.
I watched that the other day, Clark. GS is brilliant at what he does/says; I’ve yet to disagree with anything he says/thinks. But Economics alone is not the existential / definitive issue some seem to think it is. It is, of course, a very important factor, just not exhaustively so