Nigel Farage is a Racist Demagogue - Stop Dancing to his Tune
Making Fans for Nigel
Life is tough for Nigel Farage. It must be a burden to receive constant praise and deference from a media and political class you affect to despise.
In his battle for the God-given right of every man, woman and child to bank at Coutts (or whatever it is), Mr Farage has been handed a megaphone by the entire British press — including the BBC, which is typically overcompensating for its initial error. His campaign against “debanking” has been taken up by both the government and the Labour Party. Will the persecution of this man never end?
Even supposedly critical coverage is perfumed with compliments. A Guardian editorial called Farage “the most influential British politician of his generation”. The Financial Times’s deputy editor writes that Farage “retains an uncanny ability to tap into the political zeitgeist and unnerve the establishment”. A Politico article titled “Why Britain still can’t stop talking about Nigel Farage” says “the former UKIP and Brexit Party leader can’t stop winning”.
Reading all this, one might be forgiven for wondering why Farage is a controversial figure in the first place. Here’s a clue: It’s not for advocating Brexit, (though more on that later). Missing in this avalanche of drool is any reference to the fact that Farage has a record of racist demagogy to rival that of Enoch Powell.
Farage is the man who warned of a “Romanian crime wave” afflicting London and said he would be “concerned” if a group of people from Romania moved in next door. (When asked why this would be different to having neighbours from Germany, Farage replied darkly: “You know what the difference is.” He later offered a disingenuous apology.)
Farage it was who said migrants with HIV were coming to mooch off the NHS, and who raised the spectre of Muslim rapists attacking British women if we stayed in the EU. And he it was who said Jews wield oversized influence in the United States as part of a “powerful lobby”. That’s an impressively full bingo card of racist scare stories.
This is presumably “the race stuff” Farage referred to in a Guardian interview last week, in which he blamed his reputation on an “unfair press” which “did poison people’s minds” against him. I would add to this list his repeated claim (made in 2014 and 2022) that Russia’s invasions of Ukraine were caused by the EU and NATO “poking the Russian bear with a stick” — an insult to Russians and bears alike, which again depicts foreigners as mindless animals.
Is this what Farage biographer and former Channel 4 doorstepper Michael Crick means when he calls Nige “the best political communicator of our age”?
You could also get the impression from the past week that Farage was a single-issue campaigner with no politics of his own. What rot! Farage stood for election on UKIP manifesto pledges to cut taxes for the rich, slash welfare and workers’ rights for the poor, and impose various acts of cruelty on anyone deemed insufficiently “British”.
Internationally, Farage has been an ally of the neo-fascist far-right, from Le Pen in France, to the AfD in Germany, to praising Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban for “standing up to” conspiracy theorist fave, George Soros. And of course, Farage continues to be a vocal ally of that other great anti-corruption campaigner, Donald Trump.
How selfless of Farage to overlook all the slanders against him and declare that he is “now absolutely committed to being a champion for the voiceless out there. If we can all join hands I would be delighted”.
And just on this point of “winning”, and indeed of having the popular touch, it’s worth recalling that Farage stood for parliament seven times over the years, and lost on all seven occasions.
When the BBC’s Nick Robinson brought this up on the Today Programme last week, Farage lost his rag. “I’m sick to death of your condescending tone”, he harrumphed. “What you should say is you’re the only person in British history who’s won two national elections leading two different parties. Let’s try that.”
Farage wasn’t pressed on which national elections he claims to have won, or indeed for which parties. But the fact is neither he nor his UKIP or Brexit outfits have ever won a single seat in parliament. And “Mr Brexit” would presumably not describe elections to the European parliament as “national elections”.
Farage has previously taken credit for Boris Johnson’s landslide victory in the 2019 general election, having not stood Brexit Party candidates in key seats. This is a rather dubious claim, given the Conservatives have proven themselves capable of winning elections just fine on their own, even without the help of the Labour Party. Even if we grant it, might we not pause to consider whether installing Johnson in Number 10 is really something to boast about, or a sign of political acumen?
As for his great “success”, Brexit is now seen as a disaster even by its supporters, beyond the odd true believer mumbling about “seizing the opportunities”, with Farage himself recently conceding that “Brexit has failed”. To say Brexit proves Farage is a great political campaigner is like saying Jurassic Park shows Richard Attenborough’s character is a visionary theme park designer.
Since the referendum, Farage has embraced his true form as a huckster, bashing “woke” elites for the hedge funders behind GB News (he left LBC after likening Black Lives Matter activists in Bristol to the Taliban); hawking gold and crypto investments for his “Fortune & Freedom” racket; taking the “Great Barrington” line during the Covid pandemic; stirring up “stop the boats” politics on the Kent coast; and pushing for a Brexit-style referendum on the UK’s climate policies.
With a verbal output like this, you can see why he would be against limiting carbon emissions. And still he has the entire media and political class eating out of his hand. Which presents us with a choice.
It’s either the case that this bigot and former city trader has a near-magical talent for persuasion, or that journalists and politicians are choosing to dance to his tune. I would submit that the real story here is how a supposedly democratic system hands so much power to an “unelected” neo-fascist bigmouth, and how, if it all, we might “take back control”.
Adam Barnett is UK News Reporter at DeSmog and a freelance journalist. He writes this substack in a personal capacity. Follow Adam on Twitter at @AdamBarnett13