The Guardian notes this morning that:
Nigel Farage has turned on broadcasters for questioning him about his alleged teenage racism and antisemitism as the number of school contemporaries who recalled such behaviour to the Guardian reached 28.
In an angry performance at a press conference in London, the Reform leader suggested he would boycott the BBC and said ITV had its own case to answer, as he repeatedly shouted “Bernard Manning”.
They added:
Manning, a comedian from Manchester who died in 2007, was a regular face on British television in the 1970s but he drifted from the public eye after claims that his material was racist and misogynistic.
There are, I suggest, three things to note.
Firstly, and not insignificantly, Farage's claims about the platforming of Bernard Manning by the BBC and ITV in the 1970s and 80s really is something on which he should not rely. The whole point about Manning is that he faded from view precisely because he had been racist and misogynistic, and when the unacceptability of this was appreciated, the only appropriate reaction was to take his platform away. By citing him as evidence in support of his claim that media channels are being hypocritical, Farage is doing two things. First, he is admitting the charges made against him. Secondly, he is saying that despite their truth, for which the evidence is mounting by the day, he should still have a platform. All he makes clear is, firstly, his own true nature, and secondly, his incomprehension of the world's reaction to what people like him think and say.
Secondly, these allegations are sticking. When 28 people have come forward to suggest that Farage was profoundly offensive, racist, and possibly misogynistic when at school, the likelihood that every one of them is wrong and Farage is right is remote in the extreme. That said, I am, of course, aware that youthful indiscretion exists, and mistakes happen. The problem for Farage is that he appears to have maintained his views. He is, in fact, not just admitting that he did have these opinions, but confirms through his actions now that he does still hold them. The classic James Baldwin test applies. We can hear his denial, but the reality is that we need to look at his actions, and when we do, they justify the allegations.
Thirdly, it is notable that the BBC has turned on Farage. I could, of course, say, "At last", and that would be justified. But it does seem as though something significant is happening here. The BBC has it back against a wall. There is little space for it right now between a rock and a hard place. Its enemies are lining up. The critics, including Farage, would like to come in for the kill. And, maybe, just maybe, it realises that there is now only one line of defence left to it, which is to fight back.
I have, this morning, already praised the newspaper for which I write, The National, in Scotland, for speaking truth to power, which is precisely what the press should do. Perhaps, and I can only hope, but I can also pray, that the media has now realised that this is also true with Faragae.
There is only one way to beat the vile politics of this man and his political party, based as it is on both racism and misogyny, coupled with exploitation and hate.
They have to call it out.
They have to name it for what it is.
They have to make clear that this is not just a possibility, but is the reality.
They have to say on their platforms that he is promoting these behaviours, and the evidence is that he has not changed since he was a teenager, and the fact that he is still platformed as a cause of offence to the moral majority in this country, even if he can attract racist support from some, as he undoubtedly does.
I was speaking to well over 300 people in Keele last night to a group called Keele World Affairs. It is an extraordinary organisation that runs twenty public lectures a year with very large audiences. I was talking mainly about modern monetary theory, but the question of how I would deal with Farage came up, and I was asked how I would deal with him. My response was to say we should call him what he is: a racist.
My relationship with racism is personal. The clue is in my name. My father spent his life living in fear, being outed in this country for being Irish at the time when the signs in the pubs said "No blacks, no dogs, no Irish", and in that order. We were at the bottom of the pile. I have every reason to loathe racism. I might look as though I enjoy white male privilege - and of course, to some degree, I do - but I also know from lived experience what racism feels like. I notice it both in its conscious and unconscious forms, with the latter potentially being even worse than the former. And what I know is that unless the media calls it out, as it is finally beginning to do with Farage, we cannot beat it.
I am, therefore, truly grateful to those who have come forward to evidence precisely, based upon their lived experience, just what Farage has been so for so long that he hardly knows any other form of behaviour, and that everything about him is, in fact, based upon a deep-seated hatred of the "other".
My wish is that the media will use this newfound evidence to continue to speak the truth to challenge his attempt to secure power. It is the way to beat him.
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Buy me a coffee!
But the BBC and the other media – are almost silent on the elephant in Farage’s Reformuk’s room. The Russia bribery treason – which isn’t 50 years ago as Farage keeps on pointing out.
Many of Farage’s supporters know he’s racist – and want him to be racist, but the Russia treason thing is right here and now – and Starmer has not set up an Inquiry – but is asking Farage to enquire into himself.
An Inquiry could potentially destroy ReformUK as a foreign funded entity – but it would also open up the whole can of worms on Israeli funding Starmer’s Labour faction – and dark money corrupting out politics from top to bottom.
So now I seem to see conspiracies more than before – the school playground story seems a convenient way of the BBC to avoid the real story.
Byline Times have two recent and very interesting podcasts “A beginner’s Guide to Russian Influence” that are well worth a listen. I found it telling that Nathan Gill (a man Farage tried to distance himself from) pleaded guilty rather than fight the bribery charges. By pleading guilty he avoided having to answer some potentially awkward questions. Taking one for the team perhaps?
🙂
Isn’t Nigel Farage an ad hominem attack man, his attack line people of a different skin colour or from certain other countries are forever inferior? You can bet also that he believes the nonsense that money as a unit of account and medium of exchange only grows on rich people. After all if you attempt to explain to people that money is created debt free from nothing by the government and with debt from nothing by the licenced banks you get the ad hominem thrown at you that you believe money grows on trees and no attempt is made to explain how it is created. This is straight out of Margaret Thatcher’s Libertarian play book:-
“… the State has no source of money other than money which people earn themselves.”
https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document%2F105454
This country appears to have an awful lot of Libertarians who can only justify their Libertarianism by throwing ad hominems. We ought to be asking why psychologically such people feel the need to sling ad hominems including Nigel Farage!
Banks are licensed to invent money by making loans for which they charge interest. I don’t want people on low incomes to have to pay more for a mortgage, but why should bankers be so generously rewarded for lending -especially when they provide cash at very low risk of default – for the purchase of mansions?
Banking services in general are valued but increasing numbers of small communities no longer have them.
So he should not be condemned for views that he held as a teenager? Was he still a teenager when he appeared on the infamous Breaking Point poster during the Brexit referendum?
Sometimes leopards do not change their spots.
Agreed
I allow for the errors of youth, of course, but not for those spending a lifetime repeating them.
Well – you were at Keele again! I shall ask my mother about your talk because she was there (as she usually is). I shall also watch on the website when it appears in a day or two. Happy me!
I was introduced to your work via a Keele talk you did in about 2016/17 when both my parents were present. My dad in particular found you very interesting – and it let to an even more interesting exchange for him when he was discussing your work with his grandson. The grandson at the time was mid-teens and not very interested in world affairs, politics, economy etc so my dad thought he would quickly switch off from the conversation. But he didn’t – he was actually extremely interested. The two of them had a long and thoughtful conversation which my dad valued highly at the time and afterwards.
That led me to seek you out online and thus I came to this valuable blog / website. I retain more via reading than listening so I don’t watch your videos, but I do read the transcripts and your other posts.
Please keep up the good work that your whole team now does – but balance that with taking time for your other activities and time out for rest. Many thanks.
Thanks
You are right – this was my second visit
Take note of his references, Bernard Manning and It Ain’t Half Hot Mum. It’s indicative of the age of his supporters, and him, that they are his go to examples. Reform is not the party of the young, despite some of the young men in his retinue (and I have my suspicions about where they are plucked from, given Farage’s connections to Bannon). Reform is a party that is out of touch, out of date, and a last gasp of an old order, despite their so called innovative use of modern technology.
It would not be difficult for Farage to make an apology for his behaviour when at school, something I note that caused concerns at the time.
Autre Temp Autre Mors, he was under 18 etc etc
So why cant he manage it?
Because that would admit he did it.
“”No blacks, no dogs, no Irish””
I have a T-shirt that boldly states:
More Blacks
More Dogs
More Irish
LOL!
🙂
My daughter recently did a presentation at Uni about the politics of envy which of course is part of the science of Fascism. Reflecting on her own research, I think that that the public are still pretty much unaware of the extent and existence of this sort of ‘technology’ in forming opinions in society.
So, if we can contemplate that, we must look at other chinks in the Farage’s armour. I can think of two;
1. His role in BREXIT. There is plenty of buyer’s remorse for us to capitalise on (You do remember that this bloke was instrumental in making Europe harder for you to enjoy as well as more expensive – how much was your passport recently?).
2. He is just another rich guy, surrounded by other rich guys, playing at politics – they are not you or one of us – they are looking after themselves, feathering their own nests.
On top of that he is just a lazy bastard. He got BREXIT done and then pissed off and left everyone else with the consequences. What sort of ‘leader’ is that?
Our local Facebook page had a post about the flags being put on lamp posts. Our Tory MP likewise criticising a Councillor for spending £4,500 in taking them down, (I imagine the work force would be paid anyway and there is little or no real extra cost. They would be taken off other work to do so I expect so an opportunity cost )
I have not seen so many nasty comments directed at the councillors or those opposed to the flags. Accusations of corruption, ‘hating Britain’, and personal insults.
The poll below shows about half the population think the St.George’s flags are a racist message “you don’t belong here”. Not so much the national flag.
Two thirds think that racism is part of the message. The poll also shows that most on the left -Labour, Green, Lib Dem supporters are against the flags but the Conservative and Reform supporters much more in favour. I feel confident in saying the previous MP but one-a Tory minister-would have made some neutral remark and left it to fizzle out.
The present Conservative knows his votes could be pulled away by Reform ( the prediction is they will win here in the next election) so perhaps he feels the need to be supportive of the flags. The problem is it legitimises the public expression of that sort of language and sentiment. In the longer term it becomes harder to pull back. I recall the 1960s Maoist quote ‘He who rides the tiger cannot easily dismount’.
https://yougov.co.uk/society/articles/53457-england-flag-has-become-a-racist-symbol-say-ethnic-minority-adults?fbclid=IwY2xjawOePFRleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBVUXpVM3hsV2MxZEVXUDd0c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHq7YZhcwbH13xMoXpKXW6cNJSfWE4X6It0cY7fJ9YKW0H3dAjZ5jxPbdeblF_aem_Sb1Wr3QacgupLGcx3wuusA&brid=qrkULCQzrRIyQlCD6N7_PA
Our so-called “law and order” parties are condoning or even conspiring to cause the mass commission of offences – affixing flags without consent, to public highway infrastructure, even right across the highway, and ignoring health and safety rules, promoting division, fear and hatred, even, on occasion, acts of violent assault.
Given the effort that Labour (and previously Tories) have gone to, to suppress public protests against war crimes, including re-arranging judges hearing judicial reviews, & attempting to drastically reduce trial by jury, they seem remarkably disinterested in this mass act of lawbreaking, and the financial burden (and risk) it lays on local authorities.
The flags round here, like Reform UK Ltd, and their banter-addicted Jew-baiting hierarchy, are suffering from over-exposure to adverse conditions, and many are hanging limply by one cable tie (the flags, that is).
Will the fake-patriots of the right be along to remove them or is that another slice of my council tax gone down the fascist plughole?
I suspect if I encouraged the attaching of “STOP THE GENOCIDE” banners to lamposts across the nation, perhaps starting in Starmer’s constituency, they would get removed quickly by order of HMG, and I’d be up before a special “Lammy” court, sans jury, pretty quickly. So I won’t do it or condone it.
Thanks
Its interesting to note, that these st George’s flags were all put up or sprayed on at night. If, as our proud Patriots claim, it was all done to ‘show unity behind our national flag’, why not do it openly, publicly, and in daylight?
Of course any campaign started by those paragons of unity, empathy, and embracing all cultures, Tommy Robinson and Dan Wootton, is just bound to be nothing more than innocent promotion of fine values, but lets be honest, it wasn’t.
In our area we have a known far right cell, who were more than likely behind our local flag embellishments, and who aren’t likely to be doing so to encourage inclusion and unity. But there you go…
Reform are/were defending him with the “one man’s word against another” line.
Which ought really to be amended to “one man’s word against 28 other men’s word” – a somewhat less convincing defence.
As the word “liar” has been used against some of his accusers, maybe it will end up in a libel suit.
I’d prefer it to be decided in a criminal court on other issues.
The problem with the other stuff about Brexit, Putin, foreign powers corruptly inluencing UK elections etc. is that those criminal enterprises beg difficult questions about the behaviour of establishment figures such as Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, not to mention sources close to Arron Banks and other Bad Boys of Brexit (who may all have libel lawyers on speed dial, so go with care.
So expect the usual establishment fudge on Farage, while we crack down instead on cardboard terrorists by a convenient outome to this weeks judicial review.
I note Farage is now rustling up letters of support from former schoolfriends saying it was all “just banter”, not that it was not said.
Bernard Manning Aldo disappeared because he was boring, tired old mother in law and racist jokes, that left a bad taste in the mouth.
The Pale Male Stale fate.
Wish the same fate on Farage.
I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for most of the media( Times, Mail, Telegraph, Express, Sun) to call out Farage. These newspapers are very right-wing, neoliberal, and solidly for the wealth of their owners. Farage is extremely right-wing, ultra neoliberal and all for wealth, especially his own. In short, he is very much their man much as Johnson and Truss were the darlings of the media and Tufton Street ‘think tanks’. The people are turning against Farage, sensing he is dishonest and disreputable. That will be enough to sink him.
Farage has recent form in antisemitism and racism – he’s been condemned even by right wing Jewish bodies for antisemitic dogwhistles and association with antisemitic people, and his alliances with the far-right in Europe were there for all to see.
There’s a stream of racist posts/comments by Reform politicians being exposed and Farage was once happy to drop the ban on ex-National Front members in UKIP according to UKIP’s founder.
That his Nazi themed school days are long ago is not the point: people are speaking out because they don’t want him as PM, as is their right.
I don’t support Hope Not Hate but they have pretty much got Farage right here:
https://hopenothate.org.uk/2024/09/24/everything-you-need-to-know-farage/
The hard right in this country love this though – you only have to read comments under Telegraph articles to see he has their full support.
my flag is a cross between the union flag andthe ukrainian.Racist?
My wife and I are Americans, she of Irish heritage. We visited my wife’s second cousin in his home town of Manchester a few years ago. At a local pub we met an older gentleman named Liam, who told us when he moved from Ireland to Manchester for work around 1950 there were signs at apartments for rent “No Irish, no blacks, no dogs”. The first time we heard it, this time from someone who lived it. That incident confirms your story.
I promise you it is true.
It is certainly well known. Richard’s sequence order most commonly quoted to me.
In Scotland in the 50s, adverts for junior office jobs also added: ‘Catholics need not apply’. My mum endured that.
I believe discrimination on the grounds of religion was still allowed under Scot’s Law into the 1980’s……
They are all “othering” … The British establishment has a long track record in this in order to exploit.
The establishment is clearly concerned when all these others recognise they have so very much in common!
Anti-Catholic sentiment is still very real in some Scottish communities, unfortunately.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c04vdengk3do.amp
In regards to fighting Farage, this is what we are up against. This narrative of a Europe in decline, of anti EU sentiment, is part of the far right anti globalist, anti democracy, acceleration of collapse and renewal agenda and belief system peddled by Bannon and his Russian counter part Alexander Dugan. It’s weird, anti modernist, steeped in occultism and weirdness and adopted by various far right activists of all stripes. Trump is a shill, feathering his own nest, as are many far right grifters, but behind it all is a network of ideologues with weird ideas about our future. Farage is a shill too, but this network have access to him, and he them, and a counter narrative needs to be formed or we are all going to be in trouble.
Agreed
If I have the energy I will write about it.