Nobody is suggesting that Nigel Farage has broken the law, nor is anyone hinting that his gifts are tainted. But the optics are terrible.
Although I disagree with Nigel on just about everything I have always found him charming and fun to be with. He is one of the great communicators in British politics. He has the ability to appeal directly to the people. But after this unseemly and ill judged by election I am not alone in thinking that he has lost the plot, will lose the trust of the people and finally his control of Reform UK. The end will be ugly and tragic. At least when he had the affable and able Gwain Towler as his head of comms he had someone to tell him it how it is. To warn him that he was mortal. Now he has nobody close enough or brave to advise him. His aides and supporters have become worshipers. The trouble is that he doesn’t realise how dangerous this is. Reason goes out of the window. And in Farages’s case reason was defenestrated at least a couple of years ago.
The tectonic plates of politics have changed. The authenticity, honesty and crackling electricity of Kemi has finally given genuine hope to the Conservative Party. And Burnham’s USP is that he is a decent man. The polls will give him a dead cat bounce, but he not just a prisoner of his back benches and the left, but of circumstance. All politicians, even ones as hopeless as Boris Johnson, promise to rebalance the economy. Remember levelling up? I doubt it. Any recollection of George Osborne’s Northern Power House? Perhaps not. Any memory at all of Rishi Sunak moving a raft of senior Treasury officials to Darlington. Mmm. And few will remember Harold Wilson’s plan to suck power from the Treasury by forming the Department of Economic affairs under George Brown. Two departments at war resulting in indecision and chaos. Poor Andy will have weekly punishment beatings from Kemi. “And how are the cuts in welfare going?…. He obviously has a plan to spend more of defence perhaps he could tell us where the money will come from, if he can’t I will”. The list will be endless.
For Farage to pretend that this by election is his courageous stand to represent ordinary people against a deep state conspiracy is one hell of a dangerous spin of the dice, because any fool knows apart from the most deluded worshippers that this is just a lie. It is a poorly thought out device to try and save him from scrutiny. The line “Nobody cares” won’t wash anymore. Farage was seen to be different. He wasn’t from the establishment, nor a professional politician, nor a billionaire donor, just the average man propping up the bar in the Dog and Duck. No more. He flew to Davos to rub shoulders with the very billionaires, bankers and politicians he used to publicly despise. And to say that the other parties are not putting up candidates is because they are running scared is hypocrisy of the worse kind. When my old mate David Davis strangely called a by election in 2008 none of the other major parties put up candidates including UKIP whose leader was Nigel Farage. His reasoning? It was a stunt.
Ordinary decent voters who are feeling the pinch want their politicians to be open to scrutiny. It is fundamental to British democracy. It’s not good enough to stick to the mantra that a £5 million gift from a crypto billionaire or services from a convicted money launderer, crypto gambler is private. It isn’t. Farage is a public figure who could be Prime Minister. We need to know who funds him, who he mixes with and why. Using the people of Clacton as a human shield against scrutiny borders on the obscene. And the ultimate plan? Claim that the people of Clacton have vindicated him and refuse to be scrutinised. That the will of the people is above all institutions including Parliament. How chilling.
Farage will probably win the first by election, but….and it’s a wonderful but, remember H’Angus the monkey winning the mayoralty of Hartlepool because people were so fed up with politicians? Wouldn’t it be joyous if Count Binface won? He is the highly intelligent satirist Jon Harvey and will have to get equal airtime with Farage. As there is no Conservative standing I think I will canvass for him. Yes, let’s hire a charabanc, fill it with with booze and have a jolly day out. Politicians hate to have the piss taken out of them and Farage is looking rattled. For the first time he has that dead behind the eyes look of Archie Rice in the Entertainer. We could have badges made and bumper stickers with the election winning slogan “vote for a Count not a C**t”. This could be fun.