Never can there have been a more stark example of actions having consequences than when Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage performed a screeching 180-degree U-Turn and decided that the Brexit with drawl deal negotiated on behalf of alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was no longer bad and terrible, but A Very Good Thing Indeed - and pulled his candidates from Tory-held seats.
Squeaky party's over finger up the bum time
At first, this was hailed as Game Over: with the Farage Falange Fringe out of the way, Bozo The Clown would romp home in next month’s General Election and trounce all who stood against him. But then a thought entered for the right-leaning part of our free and fearless press: this would only mean holding on to existing Tory seats. To give Bozo a clear run at Tory target seats, those held by Labour, Nige would have to pull out there too.
Exit ... Stage Right
So while the Murdoch Sun told readers of “Tories’ Brexit Tonic … CHEERS NIGE!” it added “now let us beat Labour by pulling out of EVERY seat”. The Mail was on the same page, thundering “Farage won’t fight Tory seats after our front page plea. Now what about the Labour ones? NICE ONE, NIGEL … BUT IT’S STILL NOT ENOUGH”.
Farage was now on a roll, but backwards: the Brexit Party would contest fewer than 300 seats, and he was under pressure to pull out of those too. Worse, he had admitted to LBC host Eddie Mair that those 317 candidates who had been pulled out of the election would not be compensated for the money they, not he, had already committed to the campaign.
You heard that right. Mair asked him “Would you refund the money would-be candidates have spent?” The response? “Farage said that he ‘warned them all, face to face, that if circumstances changed’ then there might be a different ‘situation’. He said: ‘I'm sorry to the people that have put their time and their money on the line.’” Would those candidates be recompensed? “Of course not”. And it got worse.
Hurdy Brexit Porty Chucky!
Mair put it to Farage that he had bottled it, and asked again “Are you going to bottle refunding their money as well?” Well, Nige? "I'm not going to refund their money. They put their faith in me to do the right thing and the vast majority of them, this afternoon, agree with what I've done”. Wayne Bayley, who was going to contest Crawley, doesn’t agree.
He’s gone public with his unhappiness: “Hi [UKIP] there are a large number of EX Brexit Party candidates looking for a new home since Nigel has sold us all down the river in exchange for a peerage”. The Kippers, effectively moribund, could be unexpectedly revitalised as a result of Farage chickening out. Especially if his retreat continues.
Bayley also laid bare the amount of money that he is going to be short as a result of Farage’s cowardice. “I employed a full time campaign coordinator last week on a 2 month contract which has cost me thousands. I also have an outbuilding FULL of Brexit Party leaflets and signs ready for next weeks launch. Nigel owes me over TEN GRAND”.
Look who might be back
But, as Otto English pointed out in a recent Byline Times article, anyone hoping to become a Brexit Party candidate has to start stumping up the money before they even get to the interview stage. There is no party democracy. Farage decrees it, and that is that.
The Brexit Party is now disintegrating before our eyes. Just rejoice at that news.
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Some people - not me obviously - might just think Nige was doing all this for his own benefit, rather than that of the country (by that I mean the UK not Russia, clearly).
ReplyDeleteI mean, it's not as if there's anyone else anywhere in the word with a history of getting followers to pay up front and then not following through, Nige would have had any contact with, say, in a gold lift.
After all, ego Trumps all.
"I also have an outbuilding FULL of Brexit Party leaflets and signs ready for next weeks launch. Nigel owes me over TEN GRAND”."
ReplyDeleteYou'd have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.
I'm gonna need a sub-atomic sized violin for this...
DeleteThose Brexit Part candidates really should have remembered the old fable of "The Scorpion and the Frog":
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog
Malice in Blunderland.
ReplyDeleteNot an edifying sight.
But funny as fuck.
Some would say to these Brexit candidates 'I told you so...' but not me.
ReplyDeleteThe Brexit Party is a one man band, no party structures, no local parties,no democratic oversight...
In other words it's a cult led by a narcissist.
My prediction like all Fascists, there will be almighty handbags and possibly writs flying around very soon.
The winners as always will be M'learned friends.
Let's hope Thirsty finds his pockets emptied before he f***** off to Trump Town.
My fear is that Farage wants a coalition with Johnson
ReplyDelete