Farage A-Level Disdain - ER, HELLO

August is that month of the year when students across the country get their A-Level results, the culmination of years of study, and - hopefully - their gateway to University and beyond. As usual, our free and fearless press has performed its annual wringing of hands about all those A and A* grades being awarded, but not because the hacks and editors doing the moaning didn’t achieve any of those. Perish the thought!

But, while many students are celebrating their achievement, one prophet of gloom is not: step forward former Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, who this week is in maximum Bah Humbug mode, telling anyone who will listen “The A-level results are ludicrous and an insult to high achieving students. A-grades have doubled in number. What a joke”. So speaks someone who isn’t telling how he did when he took them.

No matter, the Daily Brexit, still called the Express, rallied to Nige’s cause after Farage had gone off the end of the pier during his show on Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”), telling readers “NIGEL Farage hit out at the ‘extraordinary increase’ in impressive A-level results branding the move as ‘everybody gets a gold medal’ as he vented at what he believes are a set of results that are ‘not real life’”. Jealousy, much?

Brampton Manor Academy students celebrate A-Level successes ((c) PA)

And there was more. “In a heated argument with school head Christine Cunniffe, of the independent LVS Ascot School, Mr Farage erupted at how many A-level students have received A and A* grades compared to last year. He branded the handing out of the stellar grades as ‘ridiculous’ and insisted that by teachers granting school leavers such good grades in place of exams, they are not preparing them for ‘real life’”.

But, as Jon Stewart might have said, two things here. One, not everybody “gets a gold medal”. And Two, nothing is merely “granted”. As to “real life”, that’s a bit rich coming from a former City insider who’s never had to do without, unlike many of the unfortunate Brexit voters who took him on trust and are now looking at an uncertain future.

Why, though, is Mr Thirsty so uptight about students receiving good news this week? Ah well. Among those celebrating A-Level successes this week has been Brampton Manor Academy in East Ham, where “Susan is off to Magdalene college, Cambridge university to study education after achieving A*AA”. From east London to Cambridge? Good one.

And there was more. “It’s A*A*A for Nana who is heading off to Cambridge university (Trinity college) to study Philosophy”. So Oxbridge is not a one-off thing for Brampton Manor, then? And it gets better for the school: “It’s off to Oxford university (Christchurch college) for Ade who achieved A*A*A*A*. Ade will be studying Maths and Philosophy”.

Well done all of them! Indeed, as Wikipedia has put it, “In 2019, 41 of its students were offered Oxbridge places, in 2020 it was 51 and in 2021 it was 55, 7 more than the prestigious Eton College”. A school with a significant number of BAME students doing better than a school with a rather less significant number of BAME students.

As Private Eye magazine might have put it, I wonder if that fact, and Nigel Farage’s disdain for A-Level results, might be in some way related? I think we should be told.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by adding to its Just Giving page at

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zelostreet9