So what never got done in the past - genuine scrutiny of Farage, his team, and his backers - is now happening. After all, that same media gave a free pass to disgraced former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson too, and look where that got us. Now Farage is under pressure, and the edifice of bonhomie is cracking. He is being exposed as a fraud.
Worse, his sometimes wacko ideas on how the world is ordered have provoked ridicule, and from the right-wing press, disgust. Today’s Mail goes for Mr Thirsty, howling “FARAGE: THE WEST ‘PROVOKED’ PUTIN … Fury as Reform leader suggests Nato was to blame for invasion”.
There is a problem with Reform UK and its supporters claiming that Ukraine looking to join Nato, and indeed the EU, was what triggered the invasion by those in the service of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and his gangsterist régime in Moscow, one of timing: Ukraine’s move to join Nato and the EU came AFTER the invasion. So it could not have been some kind of provocation.
On the domestic front, Reform UK’s Contract With Britain (or perhaps that should be Contract ON Britain) has seen the BBC’s Nick Robinson tell Farage “In your manifesto there are promises to spend more on health, more police, more soldiers, tax cuts for this group, tax cuts for that group, tax cuts for the rich, tax cuts for the poor, everybody gets everything they want. It's like Christmas”, telling him he’s offering 50% more than Labour in 2019.
Exit ... stage right
As David Clark has pointed out, apropos the Farage flagship feature, “This is why Reform UK deserves the designation far right. By talking about ‘invasion’ and framing immigration as an issue of national security, Farage is endorsing the conspiracy theory that it is being driven by a hostile foreign interest. It’s a fascist dog whistle”. Couple that with leaving the ECHR.
He blames Net Zero for “de-industrialising Britain”. Because it can’t be Brexit that done it. He claims exports are up, Britain going from 7th to 4th in the export league. Except this is only in services, not goods. Robinson pulled him up again on the infamous and swiftly-reversed Liz Truss “mini-budget”.
“You're laughing but you said on the day of the mini budget: Today is the best Conservative budget since the 1980s.. Is that the judgment of someone who deserves to be Prime Minister?” Ah well, responded Mr Thirsty, “Some of the thinking was right, the delivery was wrong, the timing was appalling”. No, the thinking was wrong too: handing rich people a tax handout is not the way to go for growth. Propensity to save v propensity to spend, and all that.
Also, Reform UK’s stance on climate change is in the wacko category. But, although the increased level of scrutiny is welcome, the thought enters that this may have been too late. Maybe Farage will win in Clacton. Which would, perversely as it may seem, be a good thing. Because then he would have to turn up to the Commons. Where he would get ridiculed more often.
And would finally be exposed as a fraud. Pity the country is screwed, mind.
https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton
Farage is finally feeling the heat because the Tory press see him as a genuine threat to their hero's share of the vote - and nothing more. Deriding Farage for using exactly the same language on immigration as Priti Patel, Braverman, Kendrick, Anderson and even Sunak himself is fine, but if he's to be designated (correctly) as 'far right' then it's time to stop complaining when Torys are too.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, far right corporate media ready to blame everyone except themselves for the far right racist shithole this country has become.
ReplyDeleteLest we forget, corporate broadcast and print media have been and are the main propagandists for the far right decline of this country. All of them are bribed cowards to a man and woman.
Ultimately the only difference between Farage and media weasels and other corrupt blue, red and yellow politicians is that he employs less hypocrisy. He doesn't pretend to be anything other than a far right shithouse and lowest common denominator.
Fact is, Farage and his type are a logical development in a nation that long ago lost its head, as did Germany in 1933.
He's not an aberration. He's a too-obvious inconvenience to a ruling class of thieves and liars. He's a predictable direct product of a corrupt declining culture. The same applies across most of the West.
He's actually the real deal. Unfortunately. If you want a snake oil salesman or PolPot
ReplyDeleteSurely Farage was provoked into his attack on reality, standing in Klackstein and being a complete prick , by red Tory far right quiff Quisling Starmer threatening to remain in the ECHR, stay sceptical of Putin’s benign intentions and not give the Europeans the regular biffing they so obviously deserve.
ReplyDeleteAnd who can blame him?
Bertie en Vacances
Tim, you're missing the important news.
ReplyDeleteAccording to BBC "News", Willy von Windsor von Saxe Coburg und Gotha and his brats are something called "Swifties".
Also, dad Charlie made Pa Broon a night watchman or something. (You rememember Pa - he's the one who "abolished boom and bust" six months before the biggest bust (read: theft) in history. Pa's mates are about to loot the country too.)
Priorities, Tim, priorities.
I must say I feel rather embarrassed to find that I share an opinion with Farage - re Ukraine.
ReplyDeleteFacts are facts though, and perhaps he's learned some. More likely though is that he's just parroting something he's heard his hero Trump say.
The reaction, as if in lock-step, of the establishment politicians and their tame media, is unsurprising. They don't argue over the facts of the case but merely condemn Farage's "disgraceful" remarks, "playing into Putin's hands" etc.
Yet even NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that Russia intervened in Ukraine in February 2022 because of their security concerns regarding Ukraine’s possible entry into NATO.
Russia has been arguing for years that there is a need for diplomacy to agree a new security architecture for Europe, one based on the principle that no country can strengthen its own security at the expense of others. The USA-NATO has consistently refused to discuss this. There is ample evidence that Russia intervened in Ukraine for reasons of their national security. A good place to start to understand the issue is this article by Professor Jeffrey Sachs:
https://www.jeffsachs.org/newspaper-articles/wgtgma5kj69pbpndjr4wf6aayhrszm
I think Ukraine's intention to apply to the EU, if not the actual application, predated the invasion. The application to NATO came after.
ReplyDelete