Nigel Farage Is Leaving The Country

So certain was he that Brexit would be a runaway success, former Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage made clear that, in the event of Brexit failing, he would be a runaway himself. He would leave the country, no doubt to the great relief of all those who wished it had happened rather earlier. He was equally certain he would not need to deliver on this.

But that was then, and this is now: yesterday evening, removed from the comfort zone of his bully pulpit on Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”), and placed before the inquisition of Victoria Derbyshire, presenting BBC Newsnight, Farage floundered. She reeled off the bad news; he initially batted it back with the usual comment that Someone Else Done It.

This talk will evoke hollow laughter from many who witnessed the 1990s shitshow that was rail sell-off - and its aftermath. Farage blamed the bad news on others? Like all those who said that if the railways had been sold off properly, for which read irretrievably fouled up, rather than only badly fouled up but just about recoverable, all would have been well. No it wouldn’t.

But Ms Derbyshire’s persistence eventually ground down the Farage façade, and then came the admission: “Brexit has failed”. Which provoked this response from LBC host James O’Brien: “The most grimly stubborn skidmark on the underpants of British politics. I know you can’t believe a word he says but he promised to leave the country in the event of Brexit failing”.

So, as Jon Stewart might have said, two things here. One, when’s he going, and where (Mr Thirsty is rumoured to already own property in at least one EU Member State), and Two, when are we going to see the rest of the Brexiteer punditerati follow suit, preferably followed by them apologising to the millions of Britons whose lives have become impoverished due to their antics?

After all, as Ms Derbyshire told Nige, “The UK economy is the only G7 economy not back to its pre-pandemic size … business investment has lagged behind comparable economies … economically, the UK would have been better staying in, wouldn’t it?” Come on Nige! “We haven’t benefited economically from Brexit, when we could have done”. This is bullshit.

What has happened since the UK’s departure from the EU, is continuing to happen, and will keep on happening in future, is the result of the UK effectively imposing economic sanctions on itself. There were no benefits to be had from Brexit; all was told over and over again before the 2016 referendum and dismissed by the Brexiteer fringe as “Project Fear”.

Farage did, along with the massed ranks of pundits and lobbyists typified by those who proudly gathered together at Brown’s Hotel in London’s Mayfair on the eve of “Brexit Day” to celebrate their achievement in conspiring to lie to the electorate in order to, as they saw it, see off their opponents and therefore win the game. So they helped screw up their own country? No big deal.

No, I’m not suggesting that any or all of them are forcibly impoverished so they can experience first hand what their actions have forced on millions of their fellow citizens, or subjected to any punishment over and above general ridicule and public contempt. But it would be doing the decent thing to say sorry. Although they won’t. Because none of them gives a damn.

Farage has admitted it was a failure, so what of those who gathered together that evening at Brown’s Hotel? Like Julia Hartley Dooda, breakfast show host at Murdoch noise floor occupant TalkTV? What’s she said about Farage’s admission? Nothing. Not a sausage. Bugger all. Too busy stoking the boilers of the sham culture war. And she is hardly an isolated example.

The odious flannelled fool Master Harry Cole, still pretending to be a real journalist, has also somehow missed Nige’s admission. And what of Cole’s old boss, the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines? One perusal of the Guido Fawkes blog answers that one: no comment. This blog did not call them The New Guilty Men And Women for nothing. Farage owned up. They won’t.

Because it’s always someone else’s fault. No change there, then.

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