Opinion: It was while in Croatia, vainly attempting to watch the French Open, that I heard Nigel Farage, the idiot savant of British politics, had made the “surprise announcement” he was standing for election as an MP at the UK’s general election on July 4.
There was more than a hint of irony in the coincidence of these two events. I failed in my effort to watch the tennis from Roland Garros in Paris on the various sites I tried to sign up to because, on holiday in Croatia, I am not a member of the European Union.
That means I can’t watch through my Sky app and I can’t join any European TV sites. Meanwhile, Farage, the man who did so much to bring about the situation in which British citizens cannot carry out normal activities in Europe, said he was taking over the Reform Party, formerly the Brexit Party, formerly UKIP, and standing for Parliament because, as he put it, “I can’t let down those millions of people.”
It was a strange way of describing the decision, because letting down people is Farage’s specialty. A diminutive batrachoid character, with a Carry On laugh and a cheeky-chap persona, he is arguably the most consequential British politician since Tony Blair, despite never having won a seat in Parliament.
He was instrumental in forcing the UK’s exit from the EU on to the political agenda. And he has been equally, if not more, influential in creating anxiety about migrants and refugees. Of course, Brexit, for which he so tirelessly campaigned, has not only proved to be an economic disaster, but it has also led to a massive increase in immigration – from outside Europe.
And yet for neither of these outcomes does Farage take the slightest responsibility. Brexit has proved a historic let-down, but its chief propagandist and proselytiser has an explanation for that. It’s because the hard Brexit that Boris Johnson forced through was not hard enough. What’s more, he argues, it’s not enough that the UK quit the EU – we should also leave every other European institution, especially the European Court of Human Rights.
Naturally, should that ever come to pass, Farage would not feel the least concern if it proved to be yet another self-wounding step forwards into the past. He is one of life’s born agitators, troublemakers, disrupters and provocateurs, who, when it comes down to it, couldn’t run a bath.
He has no idea about government. The only political position he’s ever held was a member of the European Parliament – a body he held in contempt, in spite or because of the hefty income and expenses it afforded him.
He is well versed in telling people what’s wrong. But doing what’s right is as foreign to him as a Polish builder. But then, like his hero and alleged friend Donald Trump, he has little time for the irksome business of government. He has never developed a coherent political programme beyond leaving the EU and preventing illegal migrants (never mind that it’s now easier for illegal migrants to come to the UK).
He will be standing in the constituency of Clacton, one of those rundown seaside towns of which Britain has a shocking surfeit. They are often the forgotten places, unfashionable and not infrequently the location for cheap boarding houses where refugees and asylum seekers are placed.
Therefore, he has a good chance of prevailing. It’s worth remembering, however, that this man of the people has stood seven times previously for Parliament, and each time he has been rejected by the electorate. Should voters make it a straight eight in a row, it will go some way to showing that the most important aspect of populism is that it’s never quite as popular as it likes to think.
