by Tom Rogers
I think you are missing the point here a bit, Neil, or maybe you do just accept the premise that any expression of a view contrary to the shibboleths of the socially radical Left always wrong and unacceptable for a candidate? Nigel Farage had the option to say that every candidate enjoys freedom of expression, just like the rest of us, and he need not necessarily agree with every specific detail of what candidates utter.
The excuse is sometimes made for Farage that he has no choice, but he does. I listened to the comments of the party official accused of ‘homophobia’ and it seems they were made in a private context and were pretty mild, the sort of remarks an ordinary person might make. I do also wonder why, if the comments are so offensive, the media would make them freely available for sensitive snowflakes like me to listen to?
Yesterday, Farage gave a press conference and an interview and in both he genuflected to the demands of the media that he “clean up [his] party”. I couldn’t listen to it for very long because it was clear what he meant. He doesn’t half talk rot.
On the other hand, I suppose Reform UK have broken the mould with five MPs (six if you count the Northern Ireland independent), and it’s a start – but the problem is, it’s no more than that. I can’t help but wonder if a better organised campaign could have won more seats and even killed off the Tories. Farage uses the excuse that the election was called unexpectedly, but he knew there was an election coming. No doubt Farage is not the only one culpable in this, but he comes to me as the type who is a great frontman/party speaker type, but not much of an organiser, nor a detailed-oriented person.
He also comes across, at least in his public persona, as a bit simple, the type whose public utterances consist of stringed-together talking points and barroom clichés. I think he has had a bit of a privileged life and has never had to really think too much about the issues he pronounces on. His instincts are business-like rather than for people and nations, as such.
One of the things that put me off him and his party recently is his eagerness to castigate the unemployed. He seems suspicious of anybody claiming disability or sickness benefits, imagining that they may be workshy shirkers. Not that this affects me personally, and I am sure there is something in it, and I’m sure that lots of people agree with him, but it just for me reinforced my general impression of him as somebody who is a bit lazy and ignorant, and intellectually a bit dim. The type of middle class person that England produces in abundance: private education, left at 18 for a City job despite being academically mediocre (try getting such a job if you’re a working class mediocrity – good luck!), well-spoken with plummy accent, southern England bias,, disdain for ordinary people, disdain for intellectuals, etc., etc.
I don’t know much about the benefits world, but it strikes me as quite likely that the type of people who manipulate the benefits system to live off it will often have deeper problems than just being workshy or lazy. If you stop and think about it properly, nobody is workshy or lazy. Not really. Work isn’t the problem for the most of these people. It doesn’t occur to people like Nigel Farage to think about it properly. They just rush to their lazy, pre-prepared, ready-made opinions that are tuned in to the Daily Mail.
I would much rather see a figure on the Right who is more intelligent and that bit more in touch with ordinary people’s lives and problems and not so keen to punish people for being misfits or poor
