As The Guardian has reported:
Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House judiciary committee, says we do have free speech in the UK. He says Keir Starmer has not shut down GB News, even though Farage has a show on that station in which he criticises the government and calls for bans on peaceful protests.
In support of this view, he said:
For a man who fancies himself to some kind of a free speech martyr, Mr Farage seems most at home with the autocrats and dictators of the world who are crushing freedom on earth.
And, he went on:
To the people of the UK who think this Putin-loving, free speech impostor and Trump sycophant will protect freedom in your country, come over to America and see what Trump and Mega are doing to destroy our freedom, kidnap college students off the street, ban books from our libraries, militarise our police and unleash them against our communities, take over our universities … You might think twice before you let Mr Farage “make Britain great again”.
Sometimes a brutally honest appraisal is just what is required to put the actual behaviour of someone into perspective. Congressman Jamie Raskin has provided that.
Why have UK politicians proved themselves unable to do the same thing?
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I think George Monbiot provided the answer to your closing question in yesterday’s Guardian:
“A poll by the research group Persuasion UK, testing various messages, found that by far the most effective line of attack [on Nigel Farage] is highlighting his complicity with corporate interests…
“But this is a string Labour cannot yank, as it would pull its own roof down. If there is a defining mark of Keir Starmer’s administration, it is immediate capitulation to powerful lobby groups, especially corporations and billionaires…
“Nor can the government point out the blindingly obvious: that it is not asylum seekers who jack up rents, undermine the NHS, hold down wages and keep people insecure, but capital.”
Spot on
Fashion?
Ignorance?
Stupity?
Connivance?
(Lazy) Conformity?
Power/Status Seeking Followership?
Ideological Bind Spots?
Cowardice?
Being in a postion of leadership/power resulting from a subverted pseudo-democratic set up?
?
.
Well, my view is because that most of those politicians we have all believe the same thing.
That is……………….not very much.
Modern Liberals lack something the old liberals who were instrumental in creating the Labour party had: self awareness, particularly an Hobbesian awareness of human frailties, necessary to be truly liberal to see where the personal meets and clashed with the collective and referee fairly.
This lot has no such awareness. They have lashed themselves and us to a crude and exclusive concept of freedom as if it were a vessel in a whirlpool and do not have the intelligence or critical faculties to understand what is happening as it drags us and them under to the dark depths that are human depravity.
That’s one of the things that encouraged me about Zack Polanski – his willingness to go for Fa***e/Reform AND Labour.
Why aren’t the Board of Deputies issuing a ten pledge challenge and insisting Fa***e signs it (during one of his visits to the UK), along with all his councillors, PCCs and remaining MPs? Are they not bothered about real Fascists?
Farage worries me. A lot.
This post seems fair to me; we do need, are best served, by a brutally honest appraisal.
But his demonisation, elsewhere in the Media, rather than addressing his false narratives, also worries me. I fear we are falling into the same trap that the US Democrats fell into in the past 3 presidential elections, eloquently summed up by Hillary Clinton when she called Trump voters “deplorables”. The voters in both the US and UK are ordinary people. They have been lied to by politicians of all persuasions. Is it any wonder they fall for the easy nostrums of politicians like Trump and Farage.
But it doesn’t help to demonise, make ad hominem attacks, however much we think they deserve it. This only serves to reinforce the false narratives. Yes, we need to tell it like it is, no sugar coating. But we must not dismiss valid grievances.
Farage greatly exaggerated the issues with free speech in the UK. Nevertheless such fears are grounded in reality. Banning protest groups as terrorists is very worrying. Arresting people with 5 armed police for a relatively mild post on X (albeit possibly illegal – something for a jury to decide) was very clearly police over reach with a chilling effect on free speech.
Free speech is important. It’s loss is a step towards fascism. Let’s not lose it by failing to address the issue.
People are angry, fairly
Farage is exploiting that
But Labour, Tories and others are not addessing it.
I am angry with them too. They are the problem.
People are not: they know something is wrong.
The arrest of Linehan at Heathrow involved armed police merely because all police at Heathrow are armed. There were five because they wanted witnesses to prevent a false narrative developing.
Lineham was at Heathrow because he was returning to the UK for a court appearance for stalking, abusing, and damaging the property of an 18yo trans woman. He is not a hard-done-by innocent just trying to protect women from imaginary abusers.
“Outrage” Farage the best distracting advocate for predators money can buy!
Voting for Reform (I will refrain from putting the description that I want to put in as it’s still fairly early in the day;) ) will be worse than turkeys voting for Christmas.
Reform bang on about free speech yet want to silence anyone who holds different views to them.
Reform bang on about protecting women and girls yet have consistently voted against any measures that would actually improve this.
Reform bang on about being on the side of ordinary people yet have consistently voted against measures that would help ordinary people.
And there are many, many more examples of this.
They demonise anybody they perceive as being ‘others’ whether that is immigrants, those who are disabled, those who are neurodivergent, children who have special educational needs and so on and so on.
To sum it up, they are evil and shouldn’t even be allowed to run a bath let alone a council or, heaven forbid, a country.
Craig
And now they’ve got Dorries!
You get what you deserve in this world but that’s harsh even on Reform.
I do hope that Polanski and the new Corbyn Party, go after Farage.
I tend to think that if they concentrate on Labour, that support and vote is just low-hanging fruit, and likely to result in a big FPTP win for Farage, or a Reform/Tory alliance.
Farage is weak on so many issues.
Just to start…
The environment and green energy.
Public Services.
NHS.
Pensions.
The role of the State.
Electoral Reform — does he still want PR?
etc, etc…
So many things.
He is essentially a financial and economic libertarian, and I think most people haven’t got a clue what that would mean, mainly because he is very good at lying. For the UK, it would be Trump and Liz Truss on steroids.
Go in hard on him, he hates to be put on the spot about subjects that he doesn’t want to talk about, like climate change.
Challenge him, and when he gets angry and tries to shut debate down, as he will, keep on! Show him for what he really is.
I think Jamie Raskin’s eloquent warning on Farage should be on posters all over this country, banner headlines on the lunch-time news and read out in church on Sunday. I hope Led by Donkeys has plans for it. Farage tries to present himself as a “normal” politician when he is anything but. If he had any respect for the democratic process he would be in parliament now, instead of on the other side of the Atlantic. Maybe Private Eye should do a “Where’s Nigel?” column with a list of his whereabouts each week. That would clarify exactly how much time he actually spends “representing” his Clacton constituents.
We definitely shouldn’t call him Nigel. Too chummy. “Boris” started all this and the country fell for his matey shtick.
We should use Nije Al-Faraaj, that’ll annoy him.
Isn’t this the truth? Why doesn’t the British media do this?
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1963280118719053910?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1963280118719053910%7Ctwgr%5Ee9c18e451f6c2419f093af9887d7aa2ca06d20a2%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.brfcs.com%2Findex.php%3Fapp%3Dcoremodule%3Dsystemcontroller%3Dembedurl%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fx.com%2Fatrupar%2Fstatus%2F1963280118719053910%3Fs%3D6126t%3DFPxP9rw03Z61jd2pGmotEQ
The daughter of a friend of mine will be voting for Farage/ Reform because she thinks Muslims are a problem , certain societal ills are very Marxist and Keir Starmer is a communist .
If people think that they must have sources shaping their opinions. I don’t know what sources but I guess they are to be found on social media.
My guess is 90% of the MSM