Voice of Islam found a blog I wrote in 2014 about Nigel Farage: foe not friend and invited me to do a live radio interview. I believe that Mr Farage has appealed to prejudice and xenophobia and is responsible, with David Cameron, for Brexit. Mr Cameron couldn’t get his own house in order and Mr Farage said: “Take back control of our borders” which means retreat from the multiculturalism that makes Britain great and become Little England. It means less regulation, US monopolies dominating our markets, the British government having no legal defence i.e. TTIP, trading with nations regardless of their human rights record and less environmental protection.
I would far rather befriend Angela Merkel than Donald Trump. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Theresa May does not agree.
If you don’t have time to listen to the full interview, here are a few extracts of what I said:
First about Nigel Farage
The media in some way is complicit in painting a rosy picture of Nigel Farage as a self-made man prepared to stand up for Britain. He is provocative but smooth which makes for good television.
Part of the appeal of Mr Farage and Donald Trump is that they speak their mind and do not spin their message to what they think electors want to hear. However, they divide, exploit and can stir up prejudice and resentment, against immigrants, for example (cue the poster.) Mr Farage used to work buying and selling commodities in the city. He pretends to be “everyman,” which is disingenuous, and he likes a pint. He may like a pint but he is not everyman.
There is a lie at the heart of Farage’s politics, he says he is sticking up for ordinary people against the establishment. Would he do so if he really was living on the breadline? Very little attention is paid to the fact he is a wealthy self-made man pitching for popularity.
Political parties need to attack Mr Farage on his policies. (Mr Trump spared no punches when debating with Hillary Clinton in the US election.) For a long time, UKIP has been regarded as an eccentric side-kick. After the European elections in 2014, they were taken more seriously by the media but their policies have not been debated with the rigour of the other parties. UKIP’s appeal is insidious, appealing to the heart not the head. It should be tested by the heart, with cool logic and a forensic eye. One Parliamentary Candidate who failed 7 times to become an MP, should not get so much media attention.
At the moment, the EU are investigating whether UKIP misspent £400,000 of taxpayers in the EU to fund its electioneering in addition to the Conservative accounting fraud. The European Parliament has separately reported that funding meant for EU business was being diverted into funding UKIP in the UK and the UK referendum campaign. The Independent ran this article yesterday. Mr Farage said in their defence: “Every single eurosceptic party and group is wilfully being victimised by a system that really reminds me of the Soviet inquisitors.” I reported UKIP expenses under investigation in my 2014 blog. Their expenditure should be transparent and without the EU, we wouldn’t even know.
About Nigel Farage and Donald Trump
“And now he stands next to the president-elect of the United States, a man who got the job apparently because he wasn’t part of the establishment, because he wasn’t a politician, because he promised to break the system rather than play it.”
(Rebecca Nicholson, Guardian, 13.11.16)
This goes to the heart of my mistrust of Nigel Farage. Like Donald Trump his appeal is that he presents as anti-establishment. Mr Farage does not have a road map or he would have been elected by now, he has failed 7 times to become a Westminster MP but has hinted he may stand again… or he may be better received in America. It is interesting that Mr Farage stood down as leader after the EU referendum victory and it has become clear that the “Brexiteers” have no plan. They all jumped ship leaving Theresa May, a “remainer,” to take up the poisoned chalice of negotiating withdrawal from the EU. Shame on them, they would rather bully her than lead.